Justice League: Spectre
by Freedom Guard
Summary: I have now produced my first Mass effect/Justice League crossover, not my best work due to so many demands of my time, but worth it in my book either way. This is merely the prologue and I won't update as much, just added it to get it out of my head.
1. Prologue

Justice League: The Spectre

Disclaimer: I don't have any connection to DC Comics and Bioware so don't ask.

Prologue

Heroes never die…they live forever in all those they saved and protected in life.

( ): Thoughts

…

The Cycle was over…

The Reapers were no longer coming back, they had no reason to anymore. The actions of one man who dedicated his life to defending the peace had changed all that. The sacrifice of the first Human Spectre, and former Alliance Commander Dylan Shepard had made that possible and it was something that no one in the galactic community was ever going to forget. The destruction of the Citadel and the Mass Relays was a very powerful blow to all of the community and there was no doubt that it would plunge the galaxy and the races into the proverbial 'Dark Ages'. All of galactic civilization for the lack of a better term was severed from one another.

Those who took part in the final offensive to stop the Reapers once and for all had to move for years in order to go home. And in their hearts, they all knew that the task of rebuilding their shattered civilizations was going to take years, perhaps decades, or even centuries. But that was tempered with the fact that even with all of this, their worlds were safe, they could rebuild, grow stronger, and one day, in the distant future, meet one another again. The races had much to deal with and in each home-world of the races in question, there were those who worked on a number of very important matters.

And for the people that knew Dylan Shepard the most, both old and new who still lived, they each had their own matters to attend to.

…

On Tuchanka…

Urdnot Wrex moved through the ruins of his home city, heading to a location that he felt would be the most appropriate to celebrate the birth of his first born son. The Krogan Warlord who had spent many years rebuilding his people looked around carefully yet with confidence and he was not alone. Behind him were his body guards and one Krogan in particular, his right hand lieutenant and one of the most decorated veterans of the war that the entire galactic community that survived the blood shed dubbed 'The Reaper Campaign'.

Urdnot Grunt followed his Clan's leader silently, yet wary of the dangers that plagued Tuchanka on many an occasion, in his hands was his M-300 Claymore and on his back was the same M-76 Revenant that his former Battlemaster Dylan Shepard had given him prior to the final battle on Earth. Grunt was not a very sentimental sort of Krogan but this weapon on his back was significant and he was feeling lost at times when he thought of the human who he served with when he had awoken.

But he knew that his Battlemaster fought with true honor and died a glorious death saving his people. He learned a lot from Shepard and what were his Battlemaster's morals and combat methods was now his own. This was the only way he would respect his Battlemaster, and he had every intention to allow his sons and daughters to learn from him the same way he learned from Shepard.

It was not long before the Krogan arrived at the statues and Wrex smiled a bit as the statues were untouched and had not been defiled by anyone in Tuchanka. The conservative elements of the Krogan might whine like pups about having them on Tuchanka, but he was not budging in the matter at all. If he caught them even looking at the statues wrong, he would make it his personal mission to beat an apology out of them..

Wrex looked at the monuments where the Shroud was located and he thought back on his last time speaking with Shepard back on Earth.

_**Flashback…**_

_**Dylan looked at him with a look of amused surprise.**_

"_**You got Eve pregnant?"**_

"_**Heh, being Clan leader does have it's perks Shepard, and besides, it's a first step to rebuild our people. Eve said she plans to have our first born be named Mordin, after all, he was the one who helped release the cure for the Genophage, despite the betrayal of that bitchy leader of his. And I agree with her as well, you and Mordin are heroes of the Krogan people after all and it's an honor to name your pup after a hero apart from yourself I hear."**_

_**A blast occurred nearby as the battle was underway and he saw Dylan smile a bit more.**_

"_**I wish you luck then Wrex, and thanks for everything. Especially your willingness to help the Alliance save Earth."**_

"_**That's where you got it all wrong, I should be the one thanking you Shepard. When we first met on the Citadel hunting Saren, I knew that you were a warrior born, but I had no idea that meeting you was the beginning of my people's new future. I was a mercenary who didn't give a pyjack's ass about the Krogan people, not after what my father showed me. You went out of your way to talk to me and then you helped me recover that piece of crap family armor of mine without a second thought. You convinced me not to trust Saren and fight him to not let him use my people as his own slaves. You inspired me to care and try once more to save my people from themselves, and despite the crap I deal with, you were right to bring me back to senses."**_

"_**When you came back from the dead, I knew that you were going to do something utterly worth respecting and honoring, and you did. Grunt proved to be fine warrior and he has had many good sons and daughters. He has indeed strengthened Clan Urdnot and is a testament to a true Krogan warrior who is more than some mercenary. And of course…you saved the data to cure the Genophage and risked your hide yet again to give it all to my people. My people are free now and we are going to rebuild and become stronger. And I can also say that you got me a worthy mate as well. In that regard, I should thank you Shepard. If you live through this, I am going to get you the finest bottle of Ryncol I can find and we can really put your stomach to the test."**_

"_**And if I don't make it Wrex?"**_

"_**Then I am going to make sure that I have our second child named after you, and even have a statue of you, Mordin, and Victus' son on Tuchanka. You three will be the only aliens who will ever be treated with that honor on Tuchanka. And if I ever catch any one disrespecting your statues, I will make sure that they get to feed the Varren with their own bloody hides."**_

"_**Thanks Wrex, come on, let's go shove our guns right up the Reapers' collective metallic ass."**_

_**He laughed happily to that.**_

"_**Now you are talking Shepard!"**_

_**End of Flashback…**_

Mordin moved forward to look at the statues and looked first at the statue of the Salarian scientist who he was named after.

"Is he the one who mother had me named after father?"

Wrex nodded and replied.

"He is, the only Salarian who is honored here on Tuchanka son, he cured us of the Genophage and gave us back our future, a future we fought to bring to fruition."

"And that is the Shepard?"

Wrex laughed a bit and gave a sad smile as he looked at the statue of his long time friend and partner in battle. He missed Shepard and hoped that if there was such a place as heaven in this cosmos, his friend would be there. And when he would meet him when he finally died in some way or another, he and Shepard were going to go to the nearest thing in heaven that was a bar and drink their butts off.

"Yes, and he is one of my closest friends, the others can call him all they like, but to me, he is Commander Shepard, the hero of the galaxy."

Grunt nodded in agreement as he cradled the Revenant in his hands and spoke once more.

"He taught me how to be a real warrior, and he showed me many great and glorious battles. I have every intention of proving his faith and trust in me to be more than correct."

"Spoken true Grunt, now we have to make this visit worth it, you wanted to hear about my adventures with Shepard after all, so grab a chair and let me tell you what it was like working with the man."

All the Krogan listened, Grunt most of all as the green lines on their respective bodies glowed slightly as if responding to the tales made by Wrex.

…

On Thessia…

Liara T'Soni was busy on a number of matters as before being the Shadow Broker, but with the galaxy still trying to recover, that was no longer her primary concern. Her home was still in the process of recovery and many Asari had to be sent off to be buried and given safe passage to the afterlife. Those who survived were also going to be busy as their e-democracies had to be rebuilt from the ground up. Her father was with her and even though it was hard to live with the stigma of being a Pure-blood, she did not care, she and her father had a lot of catching up to do.

She turned and nodded warmly as she spotted a very young Asari run up to her and greeted her with a smile and a cry.

"Mother!"

Liara smiled as she picked up her daughter who she had a very deep connection with and as soon as she held her daughter, they walked together to look out into the night sky. She had allowed herself to cut loose as the human saying went in the final battle and melded with Shepard .An intimate moment with the best of friends or a bondmate since it was no doubt going to be the last time she would see him and in the aftermath of the battle, she had discovered that she was pregnant with a child,

It was so unexpected but she did not turn it away either, she cared for Shepard even though it was hardly a romantic attachment. At least it did not develop further into a romantic attachment. Shepard had eyes only for Ashley Williams when she first met her, and it was obvious that the feelings were mutual. And she did recall how Ashley and she would tease one another, so her friend's death was hard and she knew it weighed heavily on Shepard.

She was saddened by it and spoke to him at times and he appreciated the friendship, and it never went past that. She was happy to at least make things easier, and when he died she was dedicated to finding him and making sure he would not be used by the Shadow Broker. Or those who hired him to take her friend's remains She knew that her change in attitude surprised and troubled Dylan a great deal, but he stood by her and when they finally rescued Feron and killed the current Shadow Broker, she was relieved. She did tease him a bit about his newfound relationship with Miranda Lawson and recalled how the former Cerberus Operative was when she met her.

Now she seemed different from before and she was happy to see Miranda actually smiling, not a faked smile or any of the sort, but an honest to Goddess smile. And it all had to do with her being in a strong and loving relationship with Dylan. Dylan did what he could to help Miranda and also did so much prior to the final assault on the Reapers back on Earth. It was hard for Miranda though as the rescue teams who tried to find Shepard found no body. It was as if he finally gave his life to save the entire galaxy once again and for the last time.

Miranda tried her best not to cry, but in the end she broke down and spent the rest of the week after the war weeping in sadness for Shepard. Liara cold understand that and decided to convince the others to let Miranda grieve in peace. Even Jack did not stop her or insult Miranda for a few days, the former convict owed Shepard much and even if she was no fan of Miranda, she did not do anything to make it worse.

It was only after the week was over did Miranda come out of her quarters that she decided to focus on repairing the damage to Earth, as her way of honoring the man she fell in love with. She was asked by Shepard's former friend Kaiden Alenko what was next for her, and she replied, she was going to live in the peace that Shepard fought so hard to protect and bring to the galaxy. And she was not going to wallow in grief, she knew she would not be able to honor him by doing that.

After some time, Liara finally got a call from Miranda and there she talked to her about the fact that she had a daughter with Shepard. She expected Miranda to be furious about her having a child while she could not. As the Shadow broker, she knew Miranda was a clone of her father and as an act of control, Henry no doubt had rendered Miranda sterile. She knew this as she had access to the files and was saddened by such a fate for a woman of any species. And thus she expected her to go ballistic on her as humans called it.

But instead, Miranda did not get angry and asked if she could meet the Asari child, stating that as long as some part of Shepard was alive, she was happy. She told Liara she planned to adopt a child with Shepard and intended to carry on even if he was gone from her life.

As for her, she and the others who survived that last run were rescued weeks later, from the planet they had landed on and now they were all home.

Liata turned to her daughter who she named after Shepard's slain mother in honor of her friend and spoke.

"How have you been Hannah?"

"I am fine mother, and I was wondering about something."

"And what would my little Angel want to know from me?"

"Can you tell me about how you met the Shepard?"

Liara chuckled a bit and replied.

"I thought I told you that story years ago, why do you want to know about it?"

"Because I wanted to know if you and him were really good friends."

Liara sighed as she decided to humor her daughter, she had yet to tell her daughter about her true connection to Dylan who was held in very high regard in the world they lived in for all he had done for the Asari and the Galaxy. The changes to all life was at first new, but in time it was accepted for in the changes to all life, they could live in peace and grow on their own.

And in that regard, Shepard lived on, forever a legend in the eyes of all races.

…

Elsewhere on the Asari home-world…

Samara could not help herself as she smiled slightly as she walked towards the small shrine that was made at her request. The Justicar was happy that her only daughter lived and was happy in the monastery that had been rebuilt after the tragedy that befell her world. She recalled how close she had been to killing herself in the desire to avoid killing her only living child, and Shepard once more convinced her not to. She recalled how happy she had been to know that her daughter would rebuild her home and live there to the end and allow her to carry on the fight to defeat the Reapers.

She had developed more than just a level of respect for Dylan and at times thought about what it would be like to be with someone to love again. She never forgot the Asari father of her daughters, but ever since the discovery f their children being Ardet-Yakshi, and their own need to keep their affair secret, she had lost track and ever since then she had chosen to be a Justicar. Meeting Dylan had secretly stirred feelings in her, feelings that she thought had gone cold and dead over the years.

He was…magnificent, he could be ruthless at times, but did it only when he had no other options and only with those who had pasts which made them more dangerous alive than dead. But through it all, he showed a level of compassion, honor, bravery, and more that was more than impressive, even by her standards. He helped her stop Morinth even though Morinth was just as powerful as she was and could have been a powerful ally against the Reapers. And he had been there to help her through the times after killing her daughter.

She saw him as someone who was rare, the very best of the humans who did not compromise his morality even if it seemed to be the better choice a the time. And in time she grew to care for him and respect him along with honoring him with her service. In time he and she grew close and briefly she had nearly given in to being with him. It was so long as she felt she could have found more than happiness with Shepard. but she had focused on her oath to being a Justicar and thus despite feeling that she could find more than just happiness with him, she refused, as she felt that Miranda might have taken offense to it as she knew the bond between Shepard and Miranda.

They met again when the Reapers invaded and he helped her again, even though one of her daughters was killed saving the others from being slaves to the Reapers. She felt the greatest pain as the monastery was destroyed and her only daughter had to be slain. Samara felt so much pain that she was willing to kill herself than slay her daughter. It was Shepard yet again who stopped her and convinced both her and her daughter not to allow death to stop them. She felt utter joy when she learned that her last child would rebuild the monastery and remain there to allow her to help Dylan fight the Reapers.

That final meeting between them was worth it, she had barely hinted to him that she might have decided to spend time with him and bond with him once more. It was not something she did lightly but she cared for him and decided that once this was over, she would no longer be a Justicar who did not love someone in her life.

But he did not return, he sacrificed himself to prevent the Reapers from harming others and killing more of the galaxy. And he also broke the Cycle to allow her and countless other sentient beings their freedom. She looked at the green lines that were present there and smiled a bit as she spoke to herself.

"Even in death you are with me and everyone else Shepard, you're sacrifice will never be forgotten. I swear it on my oath as a Justicar, and as someone who holds you dear to her mind and her heart."

She turned and smiled at the son of her fellow team member Thane Krios, Kolyat who smiled as he bowed to the Justicar.

"Justicar Samara, greetings, forgive me for being late."

"It is all right Kolyat, let us finish the service for both Shepard and your father, I have no doubt that even after all that has happened, some prayer for them is a wise thing."

The Drell nodded and soon both Samara and Kolyat begin to pray to their respective people and to one man in particular who changed the very universe and those who lived in it.

…

On Mindoir…

Miranda Lawson walked through the streets of the former colony and felt her heart ache a bit more as she walked to the place where the Batarians had attacked Shepard's home. Shepard made no pilgrimages to his former home, as the pain of those days would still be there. That was why he was so determined not to let it happen again on Elysium. And he forged a name for himself saving the city with only handful of allies and relying on what he had until they were saved by the Alliance. She had heard of him many times and was impressed by his actions in hunting down Saren, and while she had doubts about him due to his hunting of Cerberus, there was no questioning the fact that he had done much in the name of Humanity.

She reached the house where Shepard resided as a child and saw the memorial plague that was there with his face etched into the memorial in full detail. It read:

**Here is the home of Commander Dylan Shepard…**

**He was a young colonist and knew the hardship humanity faced in colonizing the stars, and the dangers with it. He watched his home destroyed and his family slain, and joined the Alliance to defend humanity, and then saved the city of Elysium, becoming a hero to all humans. He saved the Council and the Galaxy from a threat we had not thought real and disbelieved. He kept on believing and preparing and when they came, he united all races to fight this threat.**

**Now he is no longer with us, he gave up his life to save us all, we will never forget him, we will honor him, for he is one of us.**

**Rest Well Shepard.**

**Mindoir Colonial Administration and fellow Citizens of Mindoir… **

Miranda smiled as she kneeled down and placed her hands gently on the etched face of her beloved Commander. It would take years to rebuild galactic civilization but Shepard's actions had given them a future where the Reapers would no longer play a part, their futre was their own now. And she smiled at what her commander and beloved would have said about all this.

She and Oriana were safe and soon they would be moving to this colony, to at least be close to where she felt happy. Miranda would not stop helping the galaxy recover, she owed her beloved that, and Oriana herself would do her own part. She placed down the gift of books that Shepard had and his N7 Dog Tags and then took a look at her hand where there were green lines on her skin that glowed.

When they discovered what Shepard had done to bring peace to the galaxy, she and everyone in the galaxy took time to think it through. They all were changed by Shepard to save them but he destroyed himself to do it. The Reapers would never return as their purpose and mission was no longer valid. Dylan's actions had also given them the ability to make their own way in the universe and in her mind, that was worth it all. Some in any of the other races would siagree to some level, but everyone else felt that in time they could make the most of it.

And to her, there was a part of Shepard that lived on in her, it would have felt strange in a sense when one thought about it. But she did not need to, as long as something of the man she loved existed, then she would not hesitate to keep it close.

She looked then at her love's face and spoke.

"I plan to follow through Shepard, I don't know if you can even hear me if there really is s such a place as heaven, but I will adopt a child as we both said we would before all this happened. And no matter what, I will use all my time to help ensure a bright future for the entire galaxy. Rest well Shepard, I will miss you."

…

On Eden Prime…

Javik walked over to the place where he had been found and he looked at the city as it was soon being rebuild. The last of the Protheans had no idea just how to take in what had happened when he had finally awoken. But he did not have to worry that much now, as he was now experiencing the one thing that he had hoped to experience. Peace, he had promised to Shepard that if the war with the Reapers ended and they were driven back or wiped out, he would try and find what peace felt like.

And it felt, calm, busy yet calm, he and his fellow Prothean warriors and comrades knew only war and destruction and it was different from this feeling of peace. He held the book that he and Liara had written and at times he wondered what his life would be now as he was going to be the last Prothean living in this galaxy. He had once thought of allowing his experiences to cloud the views of others, many had asked him if there was hope of beating the Reapers, and he felt that their hopes were misplaced. But Shepard convinced him not to do so. People needed hope to keep them going, the human said and it seemed that he was right.

He looked with his eyes on the rebuilding city, and he had to admit that the once seen lesser races by his people had proven to be stronger than he expected. The humans more so than most of the others races for they were the ones who resisted the hardest and were soon able to help gather all other races to fight the common threat and they had won the fight and managed to come out stronger than before. They had done the same in his time but failed since they had not anticipated the Citadel, the very seat of their power to be the first to fall.

And his thoughts went to Shepard, this lone human who not only fought the Reapers, but had been a thorn to their plans many times over. This lone primitive human managed to rally all the races into one massive army and fleet to fight back and through his actions, and his decisions, he had forged the weapon needed to end the Reapers once and for all. But not by destroying then nor by controlling them, but by breaking the Cycle, transforming all life into something that the Reapers could no longer harm or attack. He gave his life willingly and his body to save the entire galaxy and give them the chance to grow stronger on their terms and not the Reapers' terms.

(Had you been born in the Prothean Empire Shepard, you would have become the strongest of us.)

(I made a promise to try peace for your sake, and while it can be too quiet, it has been worth it. Now I will be the one to decide how my end will come to me.)

He was not alone as both Joker and EDI decided to settle in the planet before both he and EDI go into another ship where they could continue to support the rebuilding of all galactic society. Many people would have considered the union of Joker and EDI was beyond odd, but they were given that freedom by Alliance command, both because of their combined contributions in the war with the Reapers, and out of respect for Shepard's support of them.

EDI turned to Joker and she spoke gently to him.

"You miss Shepard Joker?"

"Every day EDI, sometimes I wake up and hope that the second I open the door, he's going to come in and smirk as he would ask me."

Joker spoke in a imitation as best he could of his commander's voice.

"Hey Joker…how is married life with EDI? Did you and her already go to bed and come out all right?"

EDI could not help but laugh at that slight and replied to that action.

"I suppose, but I have to say that even if it should not be possible, he is with us always."

Joker nodded at that as he looked at the green lines on his arms and also felt his body become stronger day by day due to his new techno-organic body fighting the effects of Vrollick's Syndrome. He then spoke once more to the being that was now his partner and in may ways, his girlfriend.

"Yeah, I just hope that he is all right wherever he is. Once we get a new ship, I'm naming it the Shepard personally, and I don't care what the others would call that ship."

…

On Rannoch…

Tali looked out into the horizon to see the sun of her home-world, after nearly decades of wandering the galaxy, and years of longing, hopes, sacrifices and more, her people were home again. And they were no longer at war with the Geth who also have decided to find their own place in the galaxy. It had been what many would call a miracle, that both the Quarians and the Geth would willingly place down their weapons and fight side by side, with so much animosity and pain between them. She herself had to admit that she had never thought she would see this day and know that she had played a part in so many events in the future.

(Father…I wish you were here now, you would have hated Shepard in a way, but I think even you would admire him.)

(I finally had that house you spoke of built, and I will make a shrine for you soon, for now, I am happy to just be here, and free of my suit and face mask.)

She looked at a series of pictures nearby and the images there held a great place in her heart. The first was a picture that had her with the others on the first Normandy when they first went to fight Saren and Sovereign. There was Shepard, Kaiden, Ashley, Liara, Wrex, Garrus, Dr. Chakwas, Joker, and her, it was after they won the battle, saved the Council, and defeated Saren after he was revived by his master, though at least he was able to kill himself when Shepard convinced him to fight it. The party that followed was worth it all and she was happy.

The second picture had her with the new crew and the old faces, this was after the Collector base, and before the events that had Shepard thrown into prison. There was Shepard, Miranda, Jacob, Samara, Zaeed, Garrus, Kasumi, Jack, Grunt, herself, Mordin, Joker, Dr. Chakwas, Kelly, and Legion. They had decided to spend some down time and there they had this picture taken as they finally celebrated their victory. It was the only time that she saw Jack and Miranda get along well, and how Zaeed, and Grunt began to have a drinking contest. Shepard and Garrus decided to get into a sniping competition and she and Legion decided to get some time in to talk.

And the last image, was the one that was where she, Kaiden, James Vega, Shepard, Liara, EDI, Garrus, and even Javik had before the final battle with the Reapers on Earth. She could never forget the last moment she and Garrus had with their long time friend and ally, it was their last moments with him that made it so worthwhile. Shepard had thanked them for always being there and how they stood by him when everyone thought he had lost it when he heard of the Reapers, and they told him that they were going to win this together.

Now he was gone and was not coming back. Not even Cerberus in the past could rebuild him when not even a skin cell of him would be found. But Shepard's death was not in vain. They were all free and no longer in danger of being in the grip of the Cycle of extinction, and for that, her people had a statue made of him on Rannoch to honor him.

As for the Geth, they had gained what they sought, their own path in the galaxy and they had decided to continue with what they had planned before they were met by Sovereign. To forge their own path and grow from their own experiences to forget their future by their hands and not have it handed to them or have it controlled by others. She knew that while it would take time but at least they had time and they no longer had to fear retaliation by the other races.

Not after all they had done for the sake of others who by all rights they had no reason to help in the first place. They were not alone as the Rachni also were allowed to re-settle as their kind were no longer under the thrall of the Reapers and the Queen Shepard spared back on Noveria led her broods to other worlds and worked alongside the other raxes to help them grow and prosper.

Both the Geth and the Rachni remembered and respected Shepard for all he had done, the Geth thanked him and Legion not only for freeing them, but also giving them true sentience and free will, with Legion having a statue on their new Micro-Dyson sphere made of him along with Shepard with both statues shaking one another, showing their allegiance and friendship, along with the show that organics and synthetics can live in peace. And in that same fashion, they also began to make peaceful relations with her people as well, something that none had ever thought would happen considering their respect kind's less than friendly history.

And the Rachni Queen and her brood would sing songs of Shepard and the Rachni's once dark and deadly reputation was fading as they had given their all to help defeat the Reapers. And for that reason they would travel to help repair and rebuild civilization. There were still difficulties for their race, and there had been some animosity between them and those who survived the Rachni Wars. But they were willing to face them head on and show that the ravenous and blood lusting Rachni of the past who were nothing more than expendable weapons for the reapers were gone.

She turned when Garrus walked in and she smiled at her friend and now beloved husband. Garrus smiled at her and both of them sat down and looked at the sun as Garrus spoke to her.

"Thinking about Shepard again?"

"Yeah, I had no idea I would be dragged into such a life when I left for my Pilgrimage Garrus, had I known what was coming my way when I heard those rumors about the Geth from beyond the Veil, I would have never thought I would have met any of you."

Garrus laughed a bit at that and nodded in agreement.

"I owe Shepard that much as well, had I not decided to be a Rebel, I would have never met Shepard and I would have never become the Turian I am. Plus I would not have met you after all Tali."

Tali laughed a bit at that as Garrus ran his talons on her hair and gently on her face.

"You are right in that, still, I wish that he was here to see us now…"

"I suppose, you remember that time you told me that you actually liked Shepard more than you let on?"

Tali blushed a bit and yet did not deny it.

"I do, but I knew that he was hurting after Ashley died in Vrmire and I was happy to see him happy with Miranda, so I decided not to bother him. And I have to admit that I don't regret it at all now. It's a shame that Dylan and Miranda could not have a family of their own."

Garrus nodded in agreement with his Quarian mate.

"I know, shame too, I would have loved to see how our kids would have gotten along, along with both you and Miranda trading stories while me and Shepard would be shooting targets and comparing scores. Your people might have objected since they still think Miranda is part of Cerberus, but with you as one of the Admirals and a folk hero to their people, they might have thought twice."

"Plus I think Legion would have enjoyed the company."

"I know, but I think we can both agree that Shepard will always be with us no mater what."

Garrus laughed a bit at that and replied warmly and in a teasing manner.

"I suppose he would, though I think that he might have found t amusing that he's literally part of you and me, and just about everyone else in the galaxy. If he's in the bar up there, he must be laughing it up with Ash about what we're doing now."

Both laughed at that and wondered how he would have taken to it if he was still alive.

…

On Earth…

Kaiden Alenko looked at the statue of Shepard, his former commanding officer and friend who had been one of the most recognized heroes of his time and he began to think about what he had seen and done with Shepard. He knew of Dylan's life of course and also the many things Dylan had done prior to his mission on Eden prime all those years ago. The man was a good friend who had seen the best and the worst of the galaxy and in time both he and Shepard became great friends. The loss of Williams was something that he had known had hurt Shepard and he too felt that he was responsible in a way, had he not allowed himself to be caught off guard by Saren and the Geth who were under his command.

And he had been there when they came to Ilos and soon met the Prothean VI Vigil, and he was there to finally end Saren and his plans when the Reaper took over his dead body after Shepard convinced him to stop. The battle that followed should have brought the mess to an end, but Shepard was correct in dealing with the Reapers and finding them. He recalled how the Normandy was hit and how he and many others thought Dylan was dead.

Only to learn that he was now alive two years later and he recalled how he and his friend met on Horizon. It had not been easy and he had never spoken to Shepard afterwards though he wished he could deal with the Collectors and believe the fact that Shepard said that the Reapers were leading the Collectors to attack human colonies. He could not forget the things Cerberus had done to so many, human and otherwise so he did not join the fight. And it was only when the Reapers came down hard on Earth did he realize that Shepard was right all along.

He recalled how close he came to death with that thing that became Joker's Girlfriend attacking him and how he and Shepard nearly shot each other when Donnel Udina betrayed them and the Council to Cerberus. And the events that happened afterwards was something that he would never forget and he had wished he could have made it to help Shepard and Anderson when he thought he and Vega had accompanied the team at London.

He looked at Shepard's face and sighed as he was soon joined by his wife and Vega as the soldier spoke to the Spectre.

"It's good to know that he finally got what he deserves eh boss?"

Kaiden nodded and looked at his wife and she smiled a bit as she caressed her belly, it had made him utterly relieved to know that his wife was safe and unharmed. Their daughter was going to be all right and would be born in a safe world. They were soon joined by none other than Jacob and Brynn Taylor with the former Cerberus scientist holding their first born son who was still sleeping in his mother's arms. Jacob sighed as he looked at Dylan's statue and spoke next.

"After all he did, I think a statue isn't enough for him."

Brynn slapped her husband's arm bit and replied.

"I hope you don't plan on asking him to be made into the patron saint of all human Spectres, Commander Shepard would not stand for that sort of thing."

"I didn't say that, I was just thinking there should be a galactic holiday for him."

Zaeed arrived with a case of drink and replied gruffly as he sat next to the group.

"Don't know about that, I personally think that being made into a patron saint of ass kicking and pulling off all sorts of impossible death defying stunts sounds just like Shepard. And besides, he should not be called a Commander, he should be a damned Admiral right abut now. I would gladly follow him to hell and back if he was my boss back in the old days."

The men laughed at that and decided to just enjoy the peace and laughed together, unaware of the fact that they were not alone as a certain Japanese descended thief looked at the statue from a safe distance, Kasumi de-cloaked and she smiled as she recalled what Shepard had done for her and she took out a bottle of sake, poured herself a good amount in a sake cup and then spoke to the statue.

"You did all of us a favor Shep, and I hope you and your beloved will be together in the afterlife. Kampai!"

The group who had been with Shepard in the battles against the Reapers were not alone. The next to arrive to join the festivities were Gabrielle, Kenneth, Adams, Chloe, Samantha, Kelly, Diana Allers, Steve Cortez and Chakwas. All of them were finally able to share a drink and relax as they remembered their long time friend and commanding officer.

…

In Grissom Academy…

"All right people, grab your towels and hit the showers, we can call it a day!"

Jack was tired but did not let it show, she might be driving her students to the ground, but her training had been key to their survival, and she'd rather be dammed to hell than let them lose their edge. She looked at them and sighed as she leaned back on her chair and looked up to the roof of the class room. She was silent for a while and then looked to the desk and looked at the picture that she had gotten from Kasumi.

This one had Shepard working on some new weapon in the Normandy's armory, she had no idea on how the thief got the picture and it was something that she decided not to dig into any deeper. Better to just enjoy the whole thing and remember the one guy who was the best person who saved her from becoming a tool for Cerberus. And while she had hoped to see what he could do outside of battle, she felt that what he had done for her, placing her ghosts to rest was enough for her.

Granted he was hot and even more so when he kicked the crap out of their enemies, but she was not sure what to make of him. He could be such a pussy, but could also be one hell of a badass. And after what he had done for her, she developed a level of loyalty and respect for him and it was something he paid back. He came and saved her students who were like her kids and also was there to make sure that she had all the help she might need. Because of that she did wish that instead of the Cheerleader of Cerberus, he picked her instead.

But regardless, she would never forget the one man who stood up for her and gave her a direction and a purpose in her life. She might not like it when he was dragging her off to doing last stand battles for the kind of causes that she did not give a shit about, but she had to admit that he made life anything but boring. And while she did not like Miranda that much, she was not blind to see that her relationship with Dylan helped her a great deal and the fact that he helped her put her bastard of a father to an end added to that.

After what she learned of Miranda's old man and how he used people, she actually felt a sense of respect for her former rival. And that was why she did not bother her when they learned that Shepard was gone from the world, but had given his life to end the Cycle and make the Reapers never return. And in a way he was still with them as the former convict looked at the green lines on her body. Normally she would have hated it for messing up her ink, but since those lines were actually the abilities given to them by Shepard to make the Reapers leave and never come back. SO she was willing to leave them alone and in time she began to like it and she knew that she was not the only one.

Kahlee was sad beyond words to have lost Anderson, but she balanced it for two reasons, one she knew he would not want her to be despondent forever, she was a strong woman and he loved her strength which was why she did not remain in mourning forever. And the next reason was that she was pregnant with their child. And Kahlee was not in the mood to do nothing and raise their child to the best of her abilities.

(I don't know where the hell you are in this universe Boss-man, but I sure as hell hope you have finally got the chance to rest. After all the years fighting, you deserve it, but make damn sure you don't get bored.)

…

Deep in the reaches of Dark Space…

The Reapers were moving through the massive blackness and soon reached the place where they had been hibernating for untold millennia. But now they were not there to sleep and wait for the time to return to the Milky Way Galaxy, there was no need for them to do so anymore. They were there to debate their new course of action, and they were not alone either. As the surviving Reapers formed around themselves in a circle, they all began to link themselves one by one and soon all was silent for they began to commune with one another.

The reason for this…was to decide what their next course of action was going to be.

…

In the Reaper 'Council.'…

The Catalyst, the governing intelligence of the Reapers appeared before him all, but no longer in the guise of the human boy that Shepard saw before and after his actions. Instead, it was a man who Shepard would have absolutely not problem recognizing, Captain David Anderson. The central commanding A.I looked at the A.I constructs and spoke to them.

"This meeting will come to order. We have much to discuss and the data before us as well."

The very first to speak was none other than Harbinger itself, it's A.I form appeared and spoke as before.

"What is our next course of action? The Cycle is no longer needed, what purpose do we have now?"

The Catalyst expected that, Harbinger was the very first Reaper ever created, the ancestor of all the others and in a sense, his 'first born'. Harbinger took the mission seriously and was a lot more restrained in a sense that his youngest counterpart Sovereign.

"That is why we are here Harbinger, the Cycle is indeed no longer needed, so now we must discuss our purpose. We have always assumed that our consensus to towards synthetics and organics was accurate. But it has been changed, the organics in the galaxy we have now left behind are now a new form of life, and as such, our previous mission is not needed."

Another Reaper then spoke next.

"What then is our purpose? Are we to wander forever the realms of dark-space?"

"No, we need a purpose to ensure that we do not forget why we exist."

The Reapers were deep in discussion as the Catalyst looked at them, the various A.I constructs were deep in the discussion on what their fates were going to be. The Catalyst thought deeply on this, running through countless scenarios and what could be their best course of action. The actions of one organic had ended the Cycle and showed to it that peace between organics and synthetics was indeed possible. The beings they have left behind were now a fusion of both, the cybernetics Shepard had in his body was now integrated into all the living organics and thus can no longer be considered organics.

The discussion continued until it was here that one of the Reapers, one known as Narzen spoke.

"We will look for other galaxies and see if there is life in them, we should observe them and see how they grow."

Harbinger was next to speak and it's tone while not laced with any form of emotion, there was what one could consider annoyance.

"And what will be the purpose of such an endeavor when observation serves no purpose?"

"Only because we have focused on one galaxy, we have nothing to gain there in the galaxy we now left behind so we shall see if another galaxy is worth our attention. We have to search for our purpose and we shall not find it if we are to remain here forever."

The Catalyst nodded to a degree and finally spoke for the others.

"We will find our purpose, if it is not here, then we shall look elsewhere, but there is a matter that must be addressed. That matter is Shepard."

The other Reapers were silent and there a slight flicker in their avatars as they knew full well just what or rather who their creator and guiding intelligence spoke of. Harbinger was the one who spoke for the others in the Reaper Council.

"Why is that a concern?"

"As you all know, the Cycle is ended because of what Shepard has done, he however has given us the one thing we have not ever been able to accept or had removed in the mission to preserve life through destruction, free will and the ability to choose a path for ourselves. What was once seen as nothing more than mere words of flawed organics has proven to be powerful. The reason is that I feel that Shepard should be allowed to live again."

This surprised the Reapers and it was here that Harbinger spoke next.

"That is illogical, while we can indeed recreate Shepard since his DNA is now part of the energy that flows through all of us, there is no need for that. It is illogical for us to waste precious resources and energy to bring one organic back from the realm of death."

"And yet Harbinger, this one organic crippled our first attempt to harvest the galaxy as part of out the cycle. This same organic also was brought back from the grip of destruction by other organics and shattered the back of our servants. This also prevented the move on the Alpha Relay, and this organic rallied all races to fight us as we took his people from their home world and he broke the cycle. By all of our estimations and calculations, logic dictated that Shepard should have failed to stop us…yet he did. And now Shepard has rendered the Cycle null and void. It is clear that we all have underestimated organics, Shepard most of all."

Harbinger and the other Reapers did agree as they knew that Shepard had defied all logic, he was no ordinary organic with what he had done. Yet that did not mean that the Reapers were in good standing with the former human. He had slain one of their own, a feat that gained their attention, he had defied the Collectors and destroyed the Alpha Relay that helped halt their return. And through him, the universe was united to defeat a number of them and show to them that a united galaxy was more than a threat to them in more ways than one. This was the reason that some of them were less than friendly with the man and many had wanted to destroy him. But it was also through him that they saw how organics can grow when united and willing to stand side by side against all those who sought to harm them.

The Catalyst then spoke to the Reapers once again.

"Where we are going, we shall not return to the galaxy, we will find our own path and determine just where we stand in this universe. As for Shepard, he can no longer return to his universe and by all rights, he is now what organics call a legend. He has done more than what any one organic has done, to send him back into his galaxy will only reduce accomplishments he has with him. So we shall send him elsewhere to forge his own way just as his actions has allowed those we leave behind to forge their own destiny."

Harbinger was not sure of this path and neither were the other Reapers, but they knew that despite their dislike of the matter, their creator could not be dissuaded, and it's logic was not to be questioned by any of them. The Reapers soon began to glow and their figures began to glow green, and there at a point between all the gathered Reapers and the Catalyst, a single point of green energy began to appear. The point of energy began to grow larger, bit by bit, being made larger as pinpricks of the same green light came out from the Reapers themselves until it took a different shape. A shape that soon began to resemble a human form, and soon a figure finally joined the Reapers and their creator the Catalyst and if anyone could see this, they would recognize the figure before the beings.

…

It was none other than Commander Dylan Shepard.

Dylan opened his eyes and was quite surprised to see the Catalyst taking the form of his former mentor, and was even more surprised to find himself surrounded by the Reapers, the ones he had not been able to see be defeated by the combined forces he had rallied to end their threat to life once and for all. He looked however to the Catalyst and spoke seriously.

"What the hell is going on here?"

The Catalyst gave the man a smile, something Dylan did not appreciate since the face was that of his former mentor, commanding officer, and friend.

"I see that you're spirit as it is called has not dimmed in the embrace of death Shepard. No wonder Cerberus went out of their way to bring you back from the grip of death."

"You did not answer my question, what is going on here?"

Harbinger and the others remained silent as the Catalyst replied in answer to the question.

"We managed to combine the energy we have acquired from you when you sacrificed yourself to bring about a change in all life in your galaxy Shepard. You in essence died and your DNA and your very own changes when you were brought back by Cerberus has been imprinted on all living things. You broke the Cycle after all, and in that sense, you have stopped it from being repeated and gave a future to your people and that of all races. But in doing so, you have also robbed the Reapers and myself of purpose and direction."

Shepard could not help but be confused by that as he crossed his arms and replied.

"So you brought me…back from whatever happened to reduce me into energy to tell me that you are lost? I'm not buying it."

"No, we would not be surprised that you think and feel that way, that has served you well since you were born into this life you now have left behind. And we do not seek to have you give us purpose either; we shall find our own purpose for ourselves."

Dylan raised an eyebrow at that and replied.

"So why did you bring me back? I doubt as tour guide since no one alive has ever gone through dark-space."

"To give you a chance to start anew, before you react however, some details must be placed before you to understand the deeper meaning of our offer. We have no intentions of returning as you know, and where we go, no one else can follow. And you are by all rights no longer alive and in a way, your very essence lives on in all those who you have left behind. In a way, you have achieved something that many humans in your race's history have done much to achieve…Immortality. For a literal part of you will be within the generations of all races that will be born."

Dylan listened in as the Catalyst explained to him just what the effect of his sacrifice to the rest of the galaxy and those who would be born soon after would be. The idea that every being born here on in would have a fragment of him in their DNA because of what he had done was quite shocking. Hell shocking didn't about cover it as the idea of being part of every child, human or alien when they are conceived was as ludicrous as one could get. Then again, facing the Reapers, learning the truth about them, and fighting their forces was not something he signed on when he became an Alliance N7 Marine. As soon as it was over, Dylan could not help but feel a bit overwhelmed by everything that has happened so far in front of him. And he soon spoke.

"That's why the Cycle is over?"

"Yes, but for you, your time is not there anymore so returning you will not be worth anything. We all will bring you back but not to the galaxy you have left behind. You gave all life in your galaxy a path for themselves to walk on, So now I believe as you humans say it, it is time for you to walk your own path, wherever it may lead."

"How exactly do you plan to do that?"

"That is something that I believe is not to be discussed you do not need to know that Shepard. But we will assure you, or rather I assure you that we will bring you back from the dead, give you a new body that is very much like the one you gave up to end the Cycle, only better for what you no doubt face where we shall send you, a new ship that you alone can command with the assistance of an A.I based on what and who you remember from your memories, and all that you once had. But you shall never return to the galaxy that was once your home. The only question in my core logic memory is this."

"Do you accept?"

Shepard thought it over and felt that he did not have much left to lose. Going back to his friends and family sounded like a good idea. Hell he would have taken the chance to finally go home and enjoy the peace that came with it. But he also knew that with the Reapers this far out in dark-space, it would take too long for him to come back. And if he made it back to the galaxy, what then? He had no idea how long it had been since he had been dead, the Mass Relays were no longer operational, ruined beyond any chance of recovery and no doubt that had plunged the whole galaxy to the proverbial dark ages. No ship would be able to make it back in the same way, even at FTL speeds. By the time he could make it back to his galaxy, everything would change. There was no telling if anyone he knew could be alive when he got back. And there was no doubt in his mind that he would not be able to fit there anymore once the people he knew were gone, and the last thing he wanted was to be turned into some deity. He had respect for religion which was one of the reasons he and Ash connected when they first met, and the idea of him, who saw himself as a man who did his duty the idea of being deified was uncomfortable and unwelcome.

So where did that leave him?

He decided to take a chance and see how this might turn out. He was always the guy back in the Academy who took risks when he felt they could work. He took a chance at his forming the crew he worked with, he took a risk to continue in believing in the Reapers when no one else would, he took a chance to work with Cerberus to fight the Reapers, and he was willing to shoulder the burden of rallying the galactic races to make one last strike to free the galaxy from the Cycle. All of it finally paid off in the end so he knew that despite everything, he had made the right calls to save not just his race, but all others as well.

"All right, I accept."

The Catalyst smiled and looked at the other Reapers and it was obvious that none of the Reapers had expected Shepard to decide this path for himself. But it was not long before they decided to go ahead and accomplish just what was it that the Catalyst had suggested. Dylan saw the Reapers begin to glow and so did the Catalyst and soon he felt something happening to him. It was a sharp pain at first that flowed through every part of his body. Then he felt something that he had not thought possible.

A heart beat.

It started slowly at first, and soon began to pick up the pace, he looked at his hands and where there had been energy only, there were signs of bones actually growing beneath the energy itself. As this continued, he looked at the Catalyst as it replied.

"You will need to close your eyes for this to be finished Shepard, I and the Reapers will fashion you a ship similar to ourselves, thus it will be a Reaper version of your Normandy, but it shall have none of our indoctrination and is yours to command."

"Command?"

"As you will be reborn a human you are yet different from what you once were, you will be a techno-organic, and as such, your body will be changed. As for your ship's abilities…I believe the human phrase 'Find out for yourself' will apply. Farewell Shepard we shall not meet again."

That was all Shepard heard as began to feel his body begin to come alive and soon he saw a massive sea of pure green light everywhere around him. All he could do was now close is his eyes and ride whatever was happening to him out and hope that when it was over, he would be able to figure out just what was it the Catalyst and Harbinger as well as the other Reapers were doing to him.

…

Dylan could not help but open his eyes slowly and he began to feel his, new body began to work. He first saw nothing but white, then colors began to filter in, images that were once blurry began to get into focus and soon he found himself in his room on the Normandy, and that sent alarm bells in his head which did not help his headache much even as it began to rapidly fade away from him.

By all rights, the idea of him being back on the Normandy was impossible as he had been on Earth and then in the Crucible in his final hours in the battle for Earth. He looked back and forth to see if his eyes were deceiving him and saw that he was indeed in his room on the Normandy. He got up but noticed on his hands line of green and was surprised immensely as he got up and saw some of the lines on his body as well.

He turned to the bath room and headed to the mirror and to his shock, he saw that there were the same lines as before on his upper torso and on his back as well when he turned around to look at himself in the back. There were some on his thighs as well as his legs, he touched them and they felt like his own flesh, he touched them as well as himself and saw that he did indeed have flesh and blood again. His real test came when he took his shaving razor and then cut his face intentionally to see if he suddenly bled in a different fashion.

His blood was red, the same red he had seen in all of his battles, though he did notice that the color was a bit darker than before. And he noted his wound already beginning to heal. And he wondered if that had anything to do with the cybernetic enhancements his body had been given when he had been found by Cerberus and somehow been brought back to the land of the living. But this was utterly different and he soon decided to move around a bit more to see if he was not imagining things when it came to his body and organs.

As soon as he was done seeing that all of his body was moving the way it should, he decided to get dressed, and found all of the clothing he owned in his time after he died. He took out his casual uniform and noted that the Cerberus Symbol had been removed, which to him was good thing. The last thing he wanted was to remember the sight of anything that reminded of the organization that aided the Reapers in the blind belief that could control the Reapers and use them to make Humanity the dominant species. All of his time fighting the Reapers told him that doing so when one was indoctrinated by the Reapers was as effective as trying to force a hungry Thresher Maw from a meal.

As he got dressed, he moved around the ship and it operated as it had done, but as he got to the CIC area, he knew that he was alone on the ship. There was not a sign of any of the old and new faces he had come to expect on the vessel. But he did gain a surprise when he was greeted by a hologram of EDI in Eva Core's body. He was quite surprised by this and spoke first to the new arrival to figure out if he was seeing things or not.

"EDI?"

The A.I replied in the same voice and tone to that question to his utter surprise.

"Greetings Commander Shepard, and I apologize for this, I am not the EDI that you remember, I was created as an exact copy of your ship's A.I so I have all of her traits that you are familiar with. But I was made to resemble her in many ways to allow you to be more comfortable in your new ship as you humans need at times something or someone familiar to anchor you somewhere."

"How is it possible that you were created?"

"When you were transformed into energy, your experiences and memories became one with the Reapers' main data cores, so when they gave you back your body following the data they had gained on humans, they also created me from what you remember of the original EDI as well as giving me the ability to assume the forms of others in your memories if you so wish. I apologize in advance if this upsets or distresses you Commander, but this was how I was made."

Shepard felt something he had thought he was never going to feel after he jumped into that massive beam of energy so long ago. A headache and he was feeling it for a very good reason as the things before him were totally unexpected and slightly unwelcome. But in a way, having someone familiar like EDI was a good thing to his mental state of mind.

"Okay, I guess I cannot change that now, so what exactly can you do EDI?"

"Like the original EDI, I control most of the ship's functions such as cyber warfare and ECM suites, but due to the difference in the design of this version of the Normandy I am also able to control flight for both atmospheric and space flight, heavy defense, navigation and combat. In some ways, I also possess the flight skills and experience of your former helmsman Joker. I also run the armory in the Normandy and also help in the maintenance and repair of the ship."

"What exactly does this…version of the Normandy have?"

"It has many of the features installed into it by you and the crew when you battled with the Collectors along with upgrades done by the Alliance, thus not much has changed, But it is also a Reaper body which is mind yet made to be like the Normandy, and can operate in planetary surfaces when needed and is armed with a tactical cloaking system similar to the designs used by your thief ally Kasumi."

Dylan raised an eyebrow at that and made his surprise obvious.

"This ship can actively cloak?"

"Yes, your memories of Kasumi Goto' unique tactical cloak inspired Harbinger and the others to install a feature like this into the new Normandy for covert operations, far more efficient than the standard cloaking systems used by both the original Normandy and that of the recently made one by Cerberus."

Dylan thought about what was going on as he moved around the CIC for a moment longer, and then he turned to face this copy of EDI.

"Where exactly are we EDI?"

The newly created A.I turned and activated the Galactic Map and soon Dylan moved to look at it.

"We are currently moving through the area where the Terminus Systems would be situation, and there are no signals from any known Mass Relays in the Terminus, both the Primary and Secondary Relays. There is also no comm. traffic that would indicate any movement from any known galactic civilizations."

"How far are we from areas like Omega and also Ilium?"

"A few days to at least a week, we can use FTL and due to the upgrades done to the Mass Effect Core and the Reactors by the Reapers, this ship can move much further and faster than the original Normandy. The Reapers have the ability to remove the dangers of static buildup on ships and that is by channeling the static buildup into special storage cells that can be used as a supplementary power supply."

"Hmmm…I need to see if the station Omega is still there, if it's not there, then I can at least know that I am not in the same galaxy I left behind."

"As you wish Shepard."

…

The next few days that turned into a week were spent by Shepard to get used to the new Normandy. Everything that had been on the Normandy in the past was still there. The memorial for all who died was still there, and the council room was present along with the tactical data center and he recalled all the people who were there. He missed them and he also had noted that several holographic tables that showed the images of his long time friends. With three of the holograms showing the loves of his life, Ashley Williams, Miranda Lawson, and lastly Samara as well, he was happy that even if they were not they physically, he could at least see them and be at peace.

All he hoped for was that both Miranda and Samara would finally find peace in the world they all fought for, and for Ashley's spirit to rest in peace. He recalled seeing her face, then Miranda's and Samara's when he finally leaped into the energy beam. He also hoped that his friends were going to be finally enjoying the peace which they had fought, bled for many times, and nearly died to get.

As time passed, he began to get used to being in the new Normandy though he at times wished to hear the hustle and bustle of the crew. The sounds of Garrus fiddling around with his 'calibrations', the banter between Tali, Kenneth, and Gabby amid the hum of the engines, Gardner cooking and swearing, Liara typing away in the room that would have been Miranda's office, Javik busy running through some simulations, Zaeed cleaning his guns, Jack practicing her Biotics, everyone. The only solace he got in those times was the assurance that they had made it back safely and were now in peace.

This galaxy was indeed different from his own, Omega was not there anymore, along with Ilium, he also tried to go to where Palaven, Thessia, and Sur'kesh were, he found world similar to them but there was none of the beings he was familiar with. He then decided that he should just head to earth and see just what this…version of Earth was like. Whatever happened to him here, he was still a Spectre and a member of the Systems Alliance and as such, his duty to defend galactic peace and the people of the galactic community. So he was going to defend it as much as he could even though he still wished he had his crew since he knew that no matter how good he was, he was only the best because he had a good crew on his side.

No matter how many accolades he had gotten, he was still a man and he would not allow his victories and successes get to his head as he recalled the number of times he had nearly been killed. As for this new version of EDI he began to connect to EDI and he was a bit surprised to learn that if he so wished, she could have a cybernetic body made tha was very similar to what her…'mother', the original EDI had though it would be a bit more organic and also more flexible in a fight. He decided to keep that idea as a backup just in case he needed support in battle, and he wondered just how having his new partner EDI in the field.

…

Shepard could not help but feel a bit nostalgic as he looked at the view of Earth, it was to be expected after all. The last thing he had seen his Earth, the place was being ravaged by the Reapers and their cybernetic thralls. It was ironic to him now that he was on a replica of the Normandy that by all rights was a Reaper and he was not human anymore at least not entirely. The changes done to him when he was brought back to life by the Catalyst and the other Reapers including Harbinger were certainly nothing he expected. But over the years he had been an Alliance Marine, and then a Spectre, he learned from others and from his own experiences that being human was not something that was determined by race…but by one's morals, ethics, experiences, and decisions.

EDI appeared and soon reported to the reborn human Spectre just what he and she had just seen.

"The anomalies I detected in the city are equal to high output energy weapons Commander Shepard, it seems that the city is under attack by unknown hostiles."

Shepard' growled a bit at that as he spoke in response to that.

"This Earth is invaded? EDI, can you identify the attackers?"

"In a moment…there, incoming data stream now."

Shepard turned his attention over the nearby holo-screen and saw the city itself, he was partially surprised at eh looks of the city. The place resembled an older early 21st century metropolis and the cars were actually the kind that possibly used fossil fuels. He knew that the Catalyst and the other Reapers had decided to give him a new leash on life, but he did not expect them to have possibly sent him back into the future. But he quickly ignored the look of the city as he focused on the more important details.

The city was burning, the people were running away in panic, police men firing antiquated bullet firing guns at what appeared to be some sort of white/black armored looking organic alien walker with three legs. If any normal man was seeing this, he would have thought he was watching a movie about another alien invasion on Earth.

Dylan on the other hand was anything BUT normal as he had seen an actual alien invasion of Earth, there was no way he was not going to let that go unanswered.

"EDI, give me a quick analysis of that thing. Also get the Normandy through atmosphere and keep the ship out of detection range of any sensors, time to go dark."

"Understood Commander, I am also accessing an incoming field report from several media sources, no doubt concerning the invasion. I will also check the overall military readiness in fighting the threat."

…

Later…

Shepard nodded as he decided to get himself armed up, heading to where the Normandy's Armory would be located, which was at Deck 5. As soon as he got there, he headed for the weapons locker and decided to get out a set of weapons that could be helpful. He took out his m-37 Falcon Assault Rifle with all the upgrades that he had placed on it before. Once it was in his hands, he checked it for any damages and flaws. He knew that the weapon was newly made and thus was without flaw, but he was not the kind of person to leave anything to chance. Once he felt satisfied that the weapon was ready, he had it locked down and moved to his next weapon.

He got out the Javelin from the Sniper Rifle rack and checked to see that he had all the systems checked out on the weapon. The ability to tear right through armor was a good idea in his mind as he had torn through more than his fair share of enemy forces with this weapon. It was fully upgraded with the exception of Piercing functions since the power of the weapon's ferrofluid reserve. He had no idea what sort of enemy he was going to be facing until Edi brought him up to speed but better to bring out the big stuff for now. Once he was done, he got it ready as he moved to his next weapon.

He went to get his Shotgun and that was the Geth Plasma Shotgun, one of the reminders of his time fighting the Heretical Geth and eventually working with Legion. He briefly thought of the unique Geth who had been one of his loyal allies when facing the Collectors and who eventually helped give his people sentience and free will. He checked the weapon with a serious eye and soon had it folded back and ready for combat use.

Dylan then decided to take the N7 Eagle out for this mission, the clip size was already high and the stopping power might prove to be useful. This weapon had been critical in a number of battles and was a good weapon his book even though he was more into assault rifles than pistols. He checked it for any flaws, happy that the Normandy's new fabrication systems allowed him to have a number of these guns made, long after he lost his previous one in the last battle.

His eye then went to the SMG rack and he took out the N7 Hurricane, the fully upgraded and rebuilt SMG had been a valuable weapon in those times when the other guns were not going to cut it. Either that or he was forced to go close quarters. Liara and EDI were certainly pleased with the weapon and he was not the kind to argue about the power of the weapon. That was why he was going to use it when he had to and needed to.

And lastly, he checked his supply of heavy weapons to see which could help him, he would have gone for the Cain, but decided against it. If there was more than one of those alien Walker units out there, then having a high ammunition pool was better than nothing at all. Plus with the chance of civilians in the firing line, high ammunition pool and accuracy were needed. Thus he took the Geth Spitfire. These weapons were created for his use and like before, once they were out of ammunition, he could toss them away. But these weapons were armed with a special miniature self destruct system that rendered them useless lumps of molten metal.

…

He then directed his attention to his choice of armor and he headed to his room and as he got there, he opened the locker to see which he could use. His previous Hard-suit was utterly destroyed in his actions to allow the Cycle to be broken and new life to be born and the rest of his gear was no doubt lost in the original SR-2 Normandy. The Reapers and the Catalyst had all of his Armor remade with some upgrades as the memories of his armors were taken from him when he was 'resurrected' by them and sent to this world. It was a very interesting course of action in his mind and he was not going to ask too much.

As soon as he got to the Captain's Quarters, he looked at his Armor locker and there was a selection of the Armors he had collected over the years. Even the Armors he had gained from his time fighting Saren years ago were there for him to use, but he decided not to use them for now as he looked at his more recent gear. He then looked at his Collector Armor which was one of the interesting suits he had collected from Cerberus before he severed ties with them. How the Armor got sent to the Nos Astra Sporting Goods in the Citadel he would never know but no was not the time for it.

This would have to do for now as the ability to heal body damage alongside his cybernetic upgrades, increased shield power supply, and high rate to regenerate shields made this a good option for him. This armor might also give him something of an edge if he encountered the aliens and they might not recognize him as human. It was a bit of an assumption, but he was willing to take the risk if he had no other options.

…

Once he was done with donning his choice of armor while leaving the helmet off, he went back to the lower decks and headed into the CIC, and that was where EDI appeared and reported in.

"Commander, I have managed to ascertain the scans on the alien walker, it appears to be a techno-organic hybrid war machine with something resembling a control matrix. It's primary weapon appears to a high output energy cannon that is located in the area that one would assume to be the main eye. However, given the walker's sheer size, it would be accurate to assume that it's legs can count as weapons as well."

"Weaknesses?"

"Disabling the legs appear to be a viable option, along with aiming for the other smaller 'eyes' that may very well serve as sensors. Also the armor, while effective might not be designed to handle high kinetic weapons and higher explosive ordnance."

"What about the status of the militaries? Are they responding to the attack?"

"Yes, I have already intercepted a number of communications signatures that indicate that the military of the world is already mounting a counter offensive. However, given their technological levels, they may not be able to do anything. Also the reports state that they no longer have access to their world's current nuclear stockpile."

The reborn Spectre raised an eyebrow at that, sure the Alliance no longer used nukes since Mass Accelerator guns could do the things nukes could without the radiation damage, but why were there no nukes here? At this timeline or reality the Earth's military should at least have nukes on standby, as mess y as they were.

"What happened to their nukes EDI?"

"They were disassembled."

That surprised the Spectre and he replied.

"How were they disassembled? No nation would willingly disassemble their stockpiles just like that."

"They were asked to by a Senator during a meeting with this world's version of what we know as the United Nations known here as the World Assembly. The Senator's name is J. Allen Carter who apparently had been part of a mission to Mars that appeared to have been hit by an accident and he was the only one to come back alive. Thus he was named a hero by the public and the government, he was not alone either, he was aided by an alien resident of Earth, one named Superman."

That got Dylan's attention as he raised an eyebrow at what he heard and replied.

"Show me the report."

EDI complied and now Shepard was able to see the records of the news that happened before the assault of these new aliens on Earth. The reborn Human Spectre could not help but be a bit surprised as he saw Superman for the first time and the fact that despite being an alien, he looked one hundred percent human in the eyes of the man. He also looked at the reactions of the military towards carter's suggestion of Superman being the one to defend the whole of Earth. That was a seriously tall order in his mind since even if this guy Superman had these powers as far as he had seen, defending an entire planet all by yourself sounded completely crazy and difficult.

As a man of the military he was not very pleased with the disarmament of nuclear weapons since those weapons, while disastrous if misused or in the wrong hands were still useful. And now it seemed that Superman's actions, while noble at first had just come back to bite him in the ass, almost mirroring the time he had to deal with the Council's accusations and BS when he told them about the Reapers. They thought he was nuts and look what happened to the Citadel afterwards and what happened when the reapers finally showed up.

As soon as he was done, he spoke to EDI.

"What about the current reports?"

John looked at the incoming reports, and was quick to read up on the sudden disappearance of both Superman and this other one known as Batman. This confused the hell out of him as these people sounded like the kind of people that one usually found in those old style comic books. But now was not the time for these things as the Normandy was now already through the atmosphere and heading to the surface. Shepard knew immediately that he was going to need help and if these people he heard about could be found, then he would help them.

"EDI, try and locate this Superman and see where he is."

"I have already located him Commander, but at the moment, he seems to be in combat with several unknown alien contacts alongside the one known as Batman in an old fashioned airborne fighter."

"All right, drop me off a distance from them and then get the Normandy out of sight."

"Do you need my to begin preparing for a ground operation Commander?"

"No, not yet EDI, you and the Normandy are the aces in the hole for this operation, keep yourselves in the dark until I say otherwise."

"Understood Commander."

…

As the heroes continued to fight with the alien forces, Shepard was able to be deployed by the Normandy as the Spectre moved into the forest while the ship was now moving back into the sky to avoid being seem. Yet it was going to be nearby and on standby on the off ahcne some firepower, speed, and armor were needed. As he moved quickly into cover, relying on his battle hardened senses and his suit's systems, he soon arrived at the site of the battle.

He took out the Javelin and began to lock in on the people fighting the aliens.

One was apparently the one known as Superman and he had to admit that the guy certainly looked the part. The body shape certainly spoke of someone with a lot of physical strength, added to the ability to fly and more, made him look like the very definition of a Superman. Alex turned his attention to the next person who appeared to be an African American who wore a green and black costume with some sort of symbol that appeared to be a lantern.

The magnification on his sniper rifle allowed him to see that the man had some sort of green energy field around him and when he was attacked, he seemed to be aim what appeared to be a ring at his attackers. The ring seemed to guide the glow to create beams, shields and spheres, this told the Spectre that the man was the kind to focus on efficiency than looks though he was certainly no Biotic. Biotics were universally unleashing blue energy when they used Biotics so the person was not.

He directed his attention next to the woman who had wings and was armed with what appeared to be an old style mace. But that weapon was anything but old when he saw it have some form of electrical field on the head, which seemed to amplify the power it had. And it seemed that the woman had some serious strength in her as her attacks were pretty potent, and there was no way that her wings were fake as she did fly with them. He had no idea who or what she was, but if he had been a betting man, one could easily mistake her for an angel in the Christian religion. And he did notice that she was rather attractive in figure and face though the mask blocked the details. No doubt she would have gotten attention where she went regardless of her wearing the mask or not.

He directed his attention next to the other woman and he had to whistle a bit at the sight. Dark raven black hair which would have made any model green with envy was over a face that would lave launched a thousand ships, literally and figuratively. He had heard of beauty that could only be made by the Gods in more than one instance but this woman certainly took the meaning to a whole new level. There was not a single flaw there and the blue eyes only added to the package. The woman also had a figure that he felt could have even made Asari jealous or deeply interested along with any other male in the human or possibly Turian and Quarian species if that was possible.

The choice of costume certainly added to the whole mix and he wondered just who was the one who designed such an outfit for her and why in that fashion. But there was no denying that the raven haired woman looked very good in it. The fact she could fly and seemed to be able t block laser blasts with those silver bracers of hers as well as have some strength that was in par with the flying Superman meant that she was anything but normal.

(Joker would have loved to see this.)

Shepard decided not to let himself get distracted as he focused on the other being flying about, and he already could see that the being was not human. Green skin, red eyes without irises as far as he could see with both his cybernetic eyes and the Javelin's magnification scope and wore a getup that was strange. The ability to fly was also matched by his ability to somehow turn himself into a near invisible figure. The passing of energy beams through the body told Shepard that he was not to be taken lightly in a fight.

It seemed that the fight was over as the figures seemed to gather

But it was here that EDI spoke to him.

"Commander! I have detected multiple contacts on foot approaching the individuals you are looking at, and the appear to be armed."

"Are they members of the military?"

"Their formation appears to be similar to a full military formation but their biological scans show that they are not human at all. And judging by the visual data I am receiving, they appear to be the infantry of the invading forces on Earth."

"Show me."

Edi sent the images to Dylan and he could see that the enemy forces that were coming were certainly numerous. At least a full platoon and carrying what looked like organic rifles and reminding him of the Collector Assault Rifles which had been used on him more than once, and what he had used when he could as well. The creatures however did not look all like the Collectors and he knew it.

"EDI, can you give me a scan on them?"

"Yes Shepard, however, from initial scans I have made, the creatures appear to possess no exoskeleton or endoskeleton which seems to be indicative of a fluid body structure. In some ways these hostile alien contacts similar to the Hanar themselves, I also determined that their sin tone suggests that they might be vulnerable to radiation and thermal based weapons though explosive and mass accelerator weapons can do the same damage."

"Good to know that then EDI, connect to my helmet's scanners so you can do more in depth research. I am going to go in and intercept them before they get within striking distance."

…

Superman and the others tensed up as they got ready to face the forces that had been there in the base that had once held J'onn prisoner. They knew that sooner or later, they were going to have to make a move, but they were not expecting the arrival of the forces that Superman and Batman had fought before from the base. They were getting ready as the aliens came forward and their weapons were ready to fire.

Only for three of them suddenly be hit by a stream of what looked to be a laser and the three lost their heads…literally. The aliens were stunned and began to look around for the shooter, but another beam came out and cut down three more alien soldiers. It was only when they spotted the second beam's direction that they alien soldiers turned and fired, while some came charging in with their arms now turned into blades, no doubt to go in for the kill while the others fired at the shooter.

One thing was in the minds of the heroes was where the shot had come from, and they looked to see the aliens charging with their arms in blade form were being fired at by the unknown shooter as three more alien soldiers were cut down. Several came closer and there was not a following shot and then they saw the shooter appear from cover. It looked human in body form but certainly did not have the appearance of one.

Superman looked closely and saw that it was armed with what appeared to be a rifle, but it was nothing like the rifles he had seen before. The weapon suddenly began to fold up to a more compact form as the figure suddenly moved to get out another device that quickly revealed itself to be something of a rifle but also of an unknown model.

The weapon roared out and began to fire high speed glowing bolts that tore into the aliens that came at the figure and then followed by a thumping sound. The attackers were then blown apart by what appeared to be a grenade but more powerful than the ones he had seen before.

Flash commented to that as he looked at the figure.

"Who the heck is that?"

Batman thought the same thing as he grabbed his portable binoculars to see the figure just as the figure seemed to release a red hot item from the weapon and loaded another one that was in the same shape of the one he had ejected from the weapon. The figure then began to fire once more at the charging aliens until one came close enough to try and swing at him. Only to have his attack blocked by a shimmering blue energy construct. That sight surprised Batman considerably as he looked to see the alien tri another attack, only for the new arrival to quickly smash the butt of the weapon into the face and then a glowing form appeared on the being's right arm and created what looked like a blade which was soon used to stab at the alien's head.

The Dark Knight watched as the man soon moved forward to some more debris while firing the weapon while on the move as some of the laser weapons of the aliens smashed into the blue energy that was round him.

"There seems to be some sort of energy protecting him, Can you see it Superman?"

"Yeah, if I did not know any better, I'd say that guy has some form of personnel shielding."

Shepard used his Falcon's Grenade Launcher to dislodge several of the ones trying to shoot him with their laser rifles. The lasers were a concern to him but thankfully the upgrades done to Kinetic Barriers gave them a higher level of protection this time around as the shields held from the impact. The grenade blasted a few of the aliens away and he quickly fired another burst of fire at them and spotted two more coming in with weapons. He decided to place his newly acquired Biotics to the test, he was not a full blown Biotic like the members of his team but he was going to find out just what the Reapers had given him.

He quickly spotted a large boulder and focused on lifting it up, the blue field that was seen only n Biotics kicked up and soon the boulder was lifted up to block the shots of the alien weapons. Shepard then sent the thing flying into them like a bullet. Shepard turned and fired several more bursts as more came at him until he switched to his Geth Plasma Shotgun to blast apart another one attacking him at close quarters. The plasma rounds had no problem turning the alien attacker into a puddle of liquid as he turned to blast another one with the same attack, before jamming the bayonet of the shotgun into the face of the next attacker and tore it apart.

He dodged the next attack and quickly moved his weapon aside and activated his omni-blade to slice down another attacker that tried to carve into him. The blade was powerful enough to cut through the alien and cauterize the wound as he then moved to stab another one in the face. Alex then placed his shotgun on his back and took out his Eagle Pistol and ired three precise shots on three more aliens who's weapons were about to be aimed at him. The high powered slugs tore into the weapons and apparently hit the power plants or whatever powered the weapons as they exploded and killed the aliens.

Dylan quickly placed the weapon aside and quickly grabbed his Falcon Assault Rifle as one of the aliens which resembled a Varren tried to leap at him and bite his head off. But as the creature opened it's mouth he fired a grenade right in the creature and he quickly rolled aside as the creature landed and exploded in a large fashion as Alex fired three more aliens. Once that was done, the aliens that had been intent on attacking the collected heroes were wiped out as the Spectre looked around for any more contacts. He was not sure if there were others and spoke to EDI.

"EDI, are there any other contacts?"

"Negative Commander, I do not detect any more contacts in the area, though I can state that the aliens in the city some distance away are already moving to secure a location in the city. They might be up to something there."

"I see, keep the Normandy out of sight as long as possible, I think it's high time that I spoke to the people here so I can figure out just what is going on here."

…

The heroes looked at the new arrival with shock and surprise as he walked back after leaving a large number of bodies or rather puddles of the forces that had pursued them. He wore an organic looking armor that seemed to be alien looking yet designed for human form. There was no denying that he was moving as a soldier and a veteran at that, along with carrying what was a futuristic looking rifle in hand along with some other devices, on his right hand was the same glowing item and still showing the glowing energy blade. The being continued to move forward as device on his arm stopped glowing and he placed his rifle in both hands.

Lantern was quick to react to that and aimed his ring at the human like figure and spoke with authority to the figure.

"Hold it right there! Holster the weapon!"

Shepard looked at him and shrugged a bit as he replied.

"Keep your shirt on, I'm not the enemy here."

"And how do we know that?"

The Spectre replied to that as he replied.

"You've seen me in action already, if I was with them, why would I bother shooting them when I could have either let them fight you or join them and shoot you?"

That did not make things easier as the other heroes tensed up and readied themselves for an attack from the new arrival. Shepard was not the least bit amused and shook his head and replied.

"If you want me to put my weapon away, lower the darn ring and then we can talk, unless of course you plan to actually force me to surrender. THAT's when things are going to be the least bit pleasant for everyone here."

Superman focused his senses and could sense that the man was calm and relaxed, even when he was outnumbered by him, Batman, J'onn, Flash, Green Lantern, Hawkgirl and the new arrival on the scene. That was something that surprised the Kryptonian as such a reaction was only from someone who was very skilled or dangerous. And he could tell that despite the electronic distortion, the man's voice was relaxed as well, yet with a hint of annoyance and impatience. He also knew that they had a lot to discuss with J'onn as well as the one before him so now was not the time to be doing this.

He tried to use his X-ray vision but the Kryptonian was surprised to discover that his vision was being blocked, how he had no idea but he had a feeling that the man might be wearing a suit with some form of lead. The only substance he knew he could not see through was lead after all due to the molecular density of said metal.

He sighed and looked at John and replied.

"Lower the ring Lantern, let's let him talk."

Stewart turned to look at Superman with a raised eyebrow, sure he had respect for Superman, but he kept in mind that Superman was not a Lantern, and neither was he in authority here. And what Superman had just asked him to do made the former Marine look at Superman as if he had suddenly had a personality swap or grew another head.

"You want to explain that to me?"

Superman sighed and replied.

"Look, we have to give him a chance to explain himself, I can already tell that he is not going to budge, so no sense dragging this on."

Stewart looked at Superman and could tell now that the man was serious and decided to lower the ring. And Dylan did likewise as his Falcon Assault Rifle packed up as he placed it on his back as before, showing that he was a man of his word. As soon as he did so, he decided to take off his helmet. The heroes looked to hear the snapping and hissing sound of the seals of the Collector Armor open up and now they saw Shepard's face.

The man had blonde-brown hair that was in a casual but serious style, which added to the rugged and serious look he had, along with the deep green eyes that shone with a serious amount of focus and determination as well as literally shine somewhat as well. There were some faint scars there, and strangely enough lines of glowing green that looked like circuits of a sort in said scars, showing that he was indeed a battle hardened soldier as well as the heroes noticing the way he carried himself.

Shepard smiled a bit and spoke to them.

"Thanks, I was wondering when you all can relax a bit so we can talk."

Batman was the first to speak.

"Who are you?"

Shepard thought it over, sure this was not his world but he was a military guy and he had to keep some secrets. He could not give his real name or the organization he belonged to since it was obviously non existent here so he had to use another name for now. That is until the crisis is over and he could at least try to make sense of his new 'home' as it were.

(What name should I use? Hmmm…I guess I can go with that.)

"You can call me Spectre. Now that I answered that, can I ask what the hell is going on here and who is invading Earth?"

…

To be continued…

...

Author's Notes:

Well, I finally did something that I had sworn I would do when I finally had the materials to work with. This is by the possibly ONLY Mass Effect Justice League crossover anyone's ever seen, and no doubt I am really going to be waling hip deep in it. But like they say, you can't make quality work if you don't shoot big.

Anyhow, as you have read, this uses the Best version of the Synthesis Ending of Mass Effect 3 and while I know that this is really stretching it, that's the fun in using 'plot holes' in some endings. Besides it does make me curious what was it that the Reapers did once they were sent away by the green energy and now were leaving the galaxy. This is what I decided to cook up and I hope that it is going to be acceptable to the readers.

If not then I apologize since the endings that Bioware made did not leave me a lot to work with. The new announcements might change things if I had seen them before. But since they were made after I started this story, then I cannot use them at all in this story. You can complain about it when you want to, and I will understand.

Still I hope that this is going to do all right in the long run, and would be worth a reading run by you all here in the website.

And as you have read, Shepard's arrival is right in the initial stages of the invasion by the Imperium on Earth. And as you have already read, the LAST thing Shepard was expecting was to arrive in the middle of a new invasion on Earth. Granted this is not his Earth in any stretch of the imagination but it still is something he was not expecting. This also shows that unlike my previous Justice League fics, Shepard does NOT set up shop on Earth, forge a new identity, and make a move that gets him into the eyes of the public.

Instead, he appears unexpectedly in the battle as it begins early, helps fight off the Imperium and soon is in front of the future founders of the League, and is not recognized by any of them at all so he is a completely unknown factor to all of them. This way we can be assured that this story is completely different from the stories I had made in the past since Shepard has not set up shop on Earth and meets the heroes in the DCAU world earlier before the formation of the league itself..

…

Now let's get down to the fine details of Shepard and his new ship.

I have played the games and since I used import files, this version of Shepard is mine, I used the face model of Kevin Sorbo's character in Andromeda, Captain Dylan Hunt to serve as the appearance of Shepard as well as the first part the character's name to make his name is different from the default name.

The name is Dylan Shepard, and his class is Soldier and is specialized as a Commando, though I did give him the ability to use Biotics to a degree. Now if anyone thinks that I am overpowering Shepard by giving him Biotics, keep in mind that he will only have specialized powers at his disposal. Thus his use of Biotics is not very advanced or diverse; he will use Lift, Barrier, and Singularity and can use his Biotics for more unique battle situations and hand to hand combat in conjunction with the omni-blade that he is using in close quarters battles.

His techno-organic abilities will be very useful as this allows him to meld to some degree with machines in the same way that Asari can meld with other organic races. He also has a link with the Normandy and the A.I commanding it so he can also command the ship in the same fashion as his own body if need be. He also can create temporary copies of beings with whatever machines and parts he can find, though these don't last very long. He can also carry data that conforms to weapons and armor designs so he can be considered as a mobile weapon system in a sense.

A bit much, but can be helpful in the long run ad I have yet to explore the full range of abilities he can have. But remember he is not a God, he can be slain like before, but not as easily as in the past..

And he is a high level Paragon with only small hints of Renegade in him as well as very high reputation so one can say that Dylan is one of the few who can be diplomatic or ruthless when the situation requires the former or the latter. Therefore don't be the least bit surprised if Dylan takes the more deadly approach at times in his working alongside the League when diplomacy does not work.

…

And before you ask, yes he is still very much human and as such, his biological functions are all still intact and he can do all the things we can do. Naturally that means that he can have…well, do I need to explain that in detail?

And yes, the resulting offspring, if we get that far, will have some measure of Shepard's abilities as a techno-organic being and have a slight level of Biotics. That should make things very interesting!

Anyway time for, some personal history for Dylan so we know who he is. He is born a Colonist and also was the one who helped defend Elysium from attack. He and Ashley had a relationship in the hunt for Saren, but before it could any further he was forced to leave her behind in Vrmire and thus she was killed by the bomb, a source of pain for Shepard. And afterwards he developed a relationship with Miranda Lawson and she survived the Collector mission and up to the end of the campaign against the Reapers, which should be very obvious to all involved.

But naturally the two could not have a family due to Miranda being sterile, which actually annoyed the hell out of me. They did plan to adopt and while Shepard is no longer around to see it, Miranda will adopt a child and live in the very same colony that Shepard himself had been born and raised in.

…

If you have a suggestion on who Shepard could be paired with in the story, then wait for a bit as I will need to make a poll and like I stated in the story, Shepard is a straight man.

Once it is made, I will point out to all that I will not have Huntress, Black canary, Lois Lane, And Hawkgirl in the list like before. I like the couples that the women in question are part of so I have no plans to break them no matter how many people might suggest that doing it that way is a good idea.

Also as I mentioned in my profile, I can decide to either have Shepard do a single partner pairing, or more than one partner, but nowhere near the same as my Harem style stories. I might get a lot of flak with the decision but I want to point out that due to what I have seen in ME 2, having a relationship with another person which does not impact the story is pretty much possible.

If I do this, I will naturally make sure to make the relationship between Shepard and the significant other to be as meaningful and well made instead of just tossing them together for the sake of humor. So if you want to suggest someone to be in a romantic relationship with Shepard despite the fact that he is already romantic with another person, I do not mind in the least and you can PM me if you can tell me why you want this person to be in that said relationship.

…

As for gear, he will have all of his gear from the last game so unlike the other members of the League, Dylan has a very unique set of armored suits that are not only useful in various battles, but can be very helpful in keeping his identity a secret when out in a mission. This adds some variety in Dylan's overall appearance and also gives him the ability to be able to customize his combat abilities when needed. The regular clothes he has will also be present, even those party clothes he had when aiding Kasumi in dealing with Hock

The weapons he has in ME 2 and ME 3 will also be present as well though he will have to use regular modern day weapons if he wants to blend in. But the rest of his actual field gear will be very effective in fighting certain foes and also are part of who he is in battle. Naturally I will try to find ways to have Alex take down foes in a non lethal fashion since as a Spectre, Alex has the authority to use either diplomacy, force or both to defend galactic peace. That is something he brings with him in the new world as he will try to reason with them first before resorting to full scale force.

And do not forget that since Dylan is a soldier, he has killed before so he naturally does not have any dislike to the idea of fighting with lethal intent. You can bet that the League members would have some difficulty on the matter but I plan to have that ironed out. Batman and Superman would be the most adamant and I am very curious about how Shepard and Stewart would interact as Shepard had dealt with a large amount of people in his long career both in peace time and war time.

…

The new version of the Normandy is more of a living ship and in a way is like a Reaper though it naturally is nothing of the sort in appearance and function. To be clear, it does NOT have the ability of indoctrination and the controlling A.I is in a way similar to EDI so it has a more unique personality as well as having some personality traits gained from Shepard's memory of the other members of the crew and his team..

The reason for this is that at least Shepard has something or someone familiar to speak to since he is the only one in this reality. He does not have his crew or the old ship so he needs something or someone to help keep him anchored. The new version of the Normandy is also controlled by Shepard in a very unique fashion since in the story; Shepard is a techno-organic being due to the unique choices he made to bring peace between organics and synthetics and by what the Reapers had done to bring him back to life. This means that Shepard can control the Normandy when he needs to while it still has the ability to function on it's own initiative. Thus one can say that while both Shepard and EDI are two different personalities, they can rely on each other, though I could call this version of EDI as EDI version 2 even if Shepard still calls her EDI.

The Normandy therefore can serve as something of a mobile flagship for the League and since it has a lot of advanced technology and functions, it can be a valuable asset in any space or planetary operations the League or Shepard as to take part in. The weapons and armor are the same as when the ship was upgraded and has some improved functions for battle and can also land on the surface like the original Normandy despite the size difference. An attribute borrowed from the Reapers and I also added a replica of the cloak used by Kasumi as a personal touch.

…

That is about it and I hope that this will work, remember that this a prologue and a tes story so I will not update this as much as normally would.

Bye!


	2. Formation

Justice League: Spectre

Disclaimer: I do not own anything related to Mass Effect or DC so don't bother me with legal summons and stuff.

Chapter 1

Formation…

( ): Thoughts

…

The heroes gathered as the Martian, one J'onn Jonzz as he was able to refer to himself began to tell his story after they began to introduce each other to one another. Dylan made sure to record those names and he had no doubt that EDI was doing the very same thing. For now, it was the time to learn just who these invaders were and he would need all the data he could get.

J'onn told them all about how his people the Martians had once lived on a thriving planet that had a very prosperous and peaceful civilization that was there long before the rise of mammals on Earth. His people who had lived in peace for centuries, only to have it shattered by the invaders, who came just as they did on Earth now, in meteorites and then unleashed their forces on the peace loving Martians.

He told them that all attempts by his people to reason with the invaders failed and thus despite their dislike for taking life, he and his people began to fight back. They used guerilla tactics and ambush to even the odds as best as they could, but their efforts were proving to be a delay of the inevitable. The alien invaders continued their ruthless advance and captured or killed many of them, using he captured ones as food and stole the ability of the Martians as shape-shifters to infiltrate the surviving Martian resistance cells and help eliminate them.

J'onn then mentioned the last desperate gambit that he and the last surviving Martians did to halt the invaders. A small strike team was deployed including J'onn to release he nerve gas that they developed that could finally halt the invaders cold. It had worked, but the price was the literal extinction of the Martian race as the last Martians died in the assault, with only J'onn as the survivor. He made sure to seal up the invaders and make sure that he did all that he could manage to contain them. That is until the expedition from Earth finally freed them accidentally and that naturally led to their current situation here on Earth.

…

All the while, Shepard recorded all of this and quickly transmitted the data to EDI, to make sure that she was able to record and study it, just in case there might be some clue there. He on the other hand was beginning to recall that last gambit assault he and the others did in the Collector base, since the last strike of the Martians sounded very much like that mission he undertook with his team when the Collectors abducted his crew. They however managed to go in and come out not only alive but rescued the whole crew, saved the Normandy from any serious damage, and no one got killed period. That was probably why he could not help but feel greatly sympathetic to J'onn since while they had one that was nothing more than a Pyrrhic victory and no one wanted a pyrrhic victory under any condition no despite the fact such things could indeed happen in the brutal mathematics of war

. Even more so when the Reapers finally invaded his universe and began to cause all sorts of damage and killing many organics in their mission to complete the cycle of extinction, and where he had to determine how he was going to save the galaxy, it cost him a lot of good people, both in the military and out of it. Too many good people in his memories died in saving the galaxy, that was why he felt for J'onn and respected the fact he was willing to do what he did to make sure that it never happened again.

As soon as the discussion was over, one of the costumed heroes spoke, the one in red, the weird golden lightning bolts, and the bolt symbol on the chest.

"What a minute! If that's the case, then why didn't the guys in the mission on Mars report it?"

The African American in the black and green jump suit with the symbol of a lantern on it in green snorted and spoke in annoyance.

"Probably because some pencil pusher in Washington thought it would be better of made top secret."

Dylan looked at the man and could easily tell the guy was military, possibly a former Marine, judging by the way he acted and the certain…gait he moved with. Anyone who lived in the military long enough could recognize one another, and Marines knew other Marines well enough. Being an N7 Marine was enough to give him an edge which was why he did not comment in the way John spoke.

But he also knew that now was not the time to be asking those kinds of questions as he replied while placing back on the helmet of his Collector Armor with a hiss of atmosphere and a snap of seals as he replied afterwards.

"Now's not the time to ask how or why they got here, best guess is that they got teams of their people here to do as much damage as they can before all this happened. What matters now is to stop this invasion cold in it's tracks."

Superman looked at the new arrival going by the name of Spectre and knew that he was right even though he, and no doubt Batman and the other known heroes were curious on who he was. They had to deal with the soon to come invasion first and foremost, they were getting ready for the worst yet before they could do anything, the sky was soon being darkened and it was an unnatural cloud cover that seemed to spread all over the place. Flash saw that and was more than ready for a question on what was happening before them.

"What the heck is happening now?"

J'onn was able to provide a more than adequate answer.

"The invaders are nocturnal creatures and do not operate in the daylight, that is why they had deployed special factories that release a specially made ion particle field that helps block out the sun. They did the same to Mars when they invaded and that aided them considerably in eventually driving my people to extinction."

Flash decided to try and lighten the mood as it were, even though he knew that this was not going to sit well with the more serious heroes here. And naturally seeing that their foes were the night loving type, he turned to the Dark Knight himself.

"Friends of yours?"

Bruce already knew that the joke was directed at him and was not in the mood for such things

"This is not the time to act funny Flash."

Flash moved towards the Martian in his usual fashion and replied.

"Why are we worrying anyhow, all we have to do is make of that gas and then knock them all out with it and finish them off before they can be the wiser right? And I bet that you have the gas with you as well right J'onn?"

J'onn however replied seriously.

"I am afraid that it is not going to be that simple, the gas has been destroyed. All the samples of it that I had with me were confiscated by the invaders when I arrived on Earth. And the plants that my people used to make the said gas no longer grow on Mars due to the destruction of the surface by the invaders, and any samples I had of the plants were also destroyed."

Shepard was not the least bit pleased by the news, the loss of the nerve gas J'onn and his people created that proved highly effective against the aliens was bad. But the loss of the plant samples was even worse in his mind. Without the samples, there would be no way EDI could use them to create a viable copy of the same nerve gas in the new Normandy's lab which would be more than able to replicate the nerve gas. That meant that they were going to have to do this the hard way.

That train of thought was enough to remind him of the times his crew onboard the second Normandy commented on how many times he had dragged them into suicidal missions. Missions that by most standards would have looked like the kind only a complete moron with a very blatant disregard for their own health would take. And if any on them were around, especially Garrus, he would have said something sarcastic already. Maybe along the lines of…

"So we're going to be walking right into the base of the unknown hostile aliens and using our guns on their faces? Now this feels very familiar, I'm right behind you Shepard!"

Shepard mentally snickered at the thought and once more felt a twinge of guilt at not being able to see his old Turian friend.

(Damn it, I miss that guy, sure could have used his input on this one. And the others as well since I have no idea what these new aliens can do already.)

Flash couldn't help but feel a bit defeated by that and replied lamely.

"So, uh what exactly is Plan B?"

Diana then replied in her own way as she knew that in this case, destroying the enemy's factories were a much better choice.

"Then we must focus on destroying the factories if we cannot use the gas J'onn had with him."

The reborn Spectre nodded at the logic of that, if these aliens were indeed nocturnal, then depriving them of any cover that would allow them to operate would not only inhibit their ability to wage war, but make them easier to track down and corner. The same thing had formulated in his mind earlier but he had been busy trying to get all the details of his plans right

"I can agree with Princess Diana here, plus we might be able to find data on their technology so we can counteract their tech and systems if J'onn's way is no longer viable."

Diana looked at the armored man with a slight smile on her face, it was a bit surprising for her to hear a man agree with an Amazon, usually she expected the men to say no or consider her idea as foolish just because she was a woman, as what her mentors in the fighting arts back in Themyscira told her.

John Stewart however was not very happy with that and replied.

"This is not the time for amateurs' lady! That goes for both you and the new arrival."

Dylan looked at the Green Lantern with a raised eyebrow, being called a rookie just as he arrived was rather preposterous and insulting. And had any of his old crew and the people he worked with been with him, they would have taken some very serious offense to that. But he was professional enough not to react negatively and decided to just get the job done. He could surprise the man later once the battle started. He could have bet his old crew would have taken offense to that, Jack would have either given this guy a Biotic punch to the jaw, or a knee to groin. Grunt would have given him a Krogan head butt for insulting his Battlemaster. Garrus would have just laughed, and who knew how the others would have taken it.

But the dark haired woman was quick to react in an offended tone. Not that he could blame her in the first place either.

"Amazons are warrior borne! You care to test me?"

The man turned and was ready to face off with her without hesitation, but before things could get risky Dylan decided to get between them; he placed both hands in a warding gesture to both Diana and John Stewart, or the Green Lantern as he was called. He was not in the mood for a pissing match between the two people and made that pointedly clear to both of them.

"Enough! Both of you keep your cool right now!"

He turned to face Stewart and replied in a cool tone.

"In case it has escaped your attention Lantern, the Earth is being invaded by hostile forces and right now the entire military of all the nations all over the globe are all FUBAR. And they don't give a damn if you're a rookie or a veteran, they only want you dead. So now is not the time to be picky on who's the more senior one here. I can tell you're a former Marine from the way you move and act so I am disappointed you are not acting like an officer and a gentleman, so you had better re-learn to respect those who offer their help willingly to fight the enemy. Besides, considering what I have seen personally, she might not be the most experienced here, but she's got the right reasons to be here and has the powers to boot. And right now, Earth's going to need every able bodied person it can get, that includes everyone here, including Diana. You don't like it, then that is your problem."

He then turned to Diana.

"And as for you Miss Diana, I can understand why you feel offended, but now is not the time to let comments like that get under your skin. A warrior is supposed to be focused on the task at hand and not let comments like that get their tempers rising and distract them. The enemy is not going to sit down and wait for you and Lantern to settle your differences, they will use that time to do their damage and worse so focus on them along with the here and now. Lantern's reasoning is sound since you seem to be new here so it would be expected that your level of experience is in doubt so he is not stating that as insult."

Dylan moved back and then replied.

"Now can we all get focused on the mission at hand here?"

Diana was silent for a moment and nodded, the man calling himself Spectre did raise a valid point, she did have a bit of a temper, something her mother had reminded her to control. Anger was in her mother's words a double edged sword, one edge can help you win a fight, but the other can hurt or even kill you. She also felt something was different about this man, she was not trained heavily in the mystic arts, but she did notice when certain energies were about. This energy coming from Spectre was none of that, but energy nonetheless.

John said nothing and decided to let the matter be for now, he however was curious about Spectre even more. The man spoke like a seasoned veteran and as a former Marine, Stewart could tell when one is a seasoned soldier and officer, and this man showed that in volumes. He had no idea who this guy was but something told him that listening to him was a lot better than doing nothing.

Superman had to admit that the intervention was welcomed, whoever this Spectre was, he seemed to be quite used to working with various people. Superman was not aware of Dylan's history as he had forged teams from very unique individuals and with said individuals saved the galaxy not once, but three times. This was why Dylan did his best to make his team work as one, not easy since there had been some very unique personalities in his group.

"Spectre has a point, we don't know one another that well, and working together is new to all of us, even me. But we have no time to debate who's the new arrival or the veteran, Earth needs us to defend it from the invaders, so we have to do this."

Dylan was silent for now as John finally stepped forward.

"All right then, we have to focus on the factories but it would be too dangerous to go as a large group since that would allow the aliens to increase their numbers plus we would be caught in heavy firefights with the aliens. The attacks we can launch can be a lot more effective if we split into teams to handle the multiple objectives we have to deal with, that way we have a better chance of being able to take them down."

The Spectre got into the data and Lantern spoke to him.

"Anything you want to add to this plan Spectre?"

"None, the plan's very solid Gunny, two man team setup sound s to be a lot more effective since just abut everyone here seems to be given powers."

The former Marine had to shake his head a bit, as it had been a while since he had heard the usual nick name given to Gunnery Sergeants of the Marine Corps. Dylan then decided to get into contact with EDI, but he kept the A.I hidden as he decided that the A.I and the ship might become their ace in the hole when they least expect it.

"EDI, can you go and access the satellite network and locate us any of the alien factories that have just recently set up?"

"Yes Commander…I am accessing the data right now, here's the data I am now transferring to your Omni-tool should help you."

The Spectre nodded as he moved his right arm forward to him and soon the omni-tool came to life, startling the heroes as they had only seen the Omni-tool when Dylan was using the Omni-Blade.. The Spectre then placed his hand forward and the Omni-tool deployed a real time hologram of Earth and he then moved his hand over the device and located several factories, but not before speaking to the other heroes.

"First off, this device is called an Omni-tool and right now let's not get into a discussion on how it works. I'm no tech specialist so let's just leave it at that for now."

"This factory in Cairo is newly established and not yet fully defended, if there is a weakness that can be found on them, it would have to be here if we cannot use the gas that J'onn had with him. There's also one being set up in Vietnam as well. Those two seem to be our best bet."

Superman then spoke to the others.

"Lantern's plan is the best we have and Spectre's data is spot on right now, now we have to decide who's going with who."

Flash was quick to reach Diana and replied much to the woman's surprise.

"Dibs on the Amazon."

Diana had no idea what Flash was saying but Dylan could easily see that the Amazon was not used to this and Flash's forward nature was no doubt going to make things a lot more complicated than they had to be. Not to mention the fact that he knew enough about royalty in his history lessons that what Flash was doing was going to be seen as an insult to a member of royalty, and after witnessed Diana's abilities himself, that was asking for trouble.

And he decided to intervene before this turned ugly.

"I bet you say that to all the ladies."

Flash grinned at that and replied.

"Only the really attractive ones actually."

"Uh huh, and do any of those women you've said that to before Diana happen to be able to fly, block energy bolts with bracers, can possibly handle being attacked by a whole army and beat the tar out of them, and have the strength to be close to the level of Superman?"

Flash gulped a bit and replied.

"Uh, no."

"Good, so I recommend that you think twice before just saying such things Flash. Word of advice between you and me, don't get fresh with the ladies right off the bat, they might take serious offense to that. And the results can be very disturbing as well."

Hawk-girl smirked at the look of worry on Flash's face as he moved away from the female Amazon somewhat at the warning given by the armored human.

Superman shook his head but saw that everyone was in the mission now and while this was a completely new situation even for him, it was time to move out.

…

It was not long before a decision was made to have the teams move out, Flash got paired with Green Lantern, much to the annoyance of the red clad speedster. Superman was now working with Hawkgirl and the largest team thus far was comprised of Batman, J'onn, Dylan, and Diana. Green Lantern was not all too sure about that as he was pointing out that the team they formed was too big and could attract the most attention.

Dylan then replied that he had been on teams of this size before and knew just what was to do, which was not too far off from the truth. Besides that, there was not much time left and between them, they could be able to locate the data they would need to counter the invasion. With that out of the way, they were all off, but Dylan had to ride with Batman on his jet, and that was not too comfortable a ride. He could have revealed EDI and the Normandy, but decided against it since both of them were the proverbial ace in the hole for him, no sense revealing them until he had gotten enough data to work with.

For that reason, EDI and the Normandy hanged back while invisible to follow Shepard from high up and provide support when called by him. For now he had to deal with being in the camped areas of the Bat Plane, which was no doubt so due to the armor he wore and the equipment he carried. But he had been in worse and he was an N7 Marine so he sucked it up and dealt with the discomfort.

On the outside of the Plane, but J'onn and Diana were flying on either side of the Plane and this allowed Dylan to think a bit more about this new universe he was in. He knew here and now that he was going to have to chance his way of thinking if he was going to be here since all of this was really new to him. And he was going to have to make sure to adopt some new ways of looking at the world and the beings he might meet. That was easier at least due to the fact that he came from a universe where humans and aliens had met already.

…

Green Lantern and Flash were already on the move to the alien factory in the jungles of Vietnam and the speedster was none too happy at being paired with the former Marine.

"You are no fun!"

John Stewart however did not budge in the slightest, he knew that they had a job to do and now was not the time to get into word wars with one another.

"We're not here to have fun speedy! We're here to do our job and save the world, so stop complaining!"

"Yeah, yeah…"

Flash was still miffed at not being with the Amazon thought he had to admit that the Spectre did have a point. The last thing he wanted to do was court disaster with someone of Diana's abilities. But that did not mean that he was going to quit with flirting with any attractive woman.

…

As for Superman and Hawkgirl, they went back to Metropolis as the factory there was the closest to them and was therefore a logical target. However that did not mean that it was going to be easy, as it was also the one where the alien invasion had managed to fortify their location as there were now more alien walkers on patrol. That did not stop the two however as they all pressed on the attack.

…

In Cairo Egypt…

Dylan was currently moving alongside Batman as they and Wonder Woman moved closer to the now established factory of the alien forces. But their movements seemed more restricted as it was morning there and that fact, no doubt had some effect on the aliens that their factory seemed to be offline. The group however went to cover near some ruins to avoid the aliens as they needed to find a way into the factory. J'onn had gone head of the trio to scout out the area and find an alternate route but it was obvious that not everyone was happy as the sole female of the team seemed to be discontent with their course of action.

"Hiding like cowards is not the way of the Amazons."

Diana was less than pleased by this sneaking about as it grated on her nerves due to it going against her people's teachings. Batman ignored that while Dylan actually found it amusing as he looked through the scope of his Falcon Assault Rifle, the beautiful woman was definitely the warrior type in his mind, and from what he had seen already, the idea of fighting in front of the enemy was more her style.

Batman did not say anything yet so he decided to make idle conversation with the Amazon.

"It might be frustrating Miss Diana, but it does have it's purpose, as soon as we get to see J'onn the better off we are."

Diana wondered what that meant but there was no time as J'onn reappeared and gave his report on the situation that they were in.

"There seems to be no direct way in, no doubt the aliens have sealed off any entrance into the facility. I can infiltrate it and try to find a way to open it, but I will be outnumbered by then."

Diana then took out that golden lasso and replied.

"Then we make our own way in."

She quickly got into the air and soon exposed herself to the alien forces nearby, Batman was less than pleased by her actions, even though he understood the reasoning, having studied books on Amazon mythology. He knew that they still prefer to face their enemies head on and Diana proved that right, but he was stopped by both J'onn and Dylan though Dylan spoke first.

"Let her do it, she's tougher than she looks."

And sure enough, Diana was able to take down the alien walker despite it firing it's weapons at her. She used her lasso and managed to capture one of the alien walkers by a limb and soon wrapped the rope around the legs. Dylan had to whistle a bit in appreciation as he and the others watched her bring down the walker with one powerful punch as it was too busy trying to right itself to counter her. The blow sent the walker smashing hard into the side of the factory and soon an entrance was made.

Dylan smirked a bit as he and the others moved out with EDI speaking to him privately.

"That is no ordinary rope Commander, I managed to run some tests and it's tensile strength is beyond any known rope material on record. And I have managed to scan it and there seems to be no record of the material as well as picking up some form of energy coming from the rope."

"I think we can place that aside for now EDI, we still have a mission to accomplish. How far is the Normandy?"

"At least several kilometers from your position, I will be ready to move in to support you should you need it."

Dylan nodded in agreement as he and the others came into the factory, but they soon found themselves under fire from alien forces and here Diana showed her reflexes up close as she deflected several of the laser bolts that came towards them. Dylan was quick to back her up as he used his Hurricane SMG to take down several of the aliens. This was able to weaken the number of aliens attacking the team and as the aliens moved back, Diana was quick to follow them, but not before turning around and speaking to the group as J'onn joined them.

"The cowards are retreating! Come on!"

Dylan could not help but smirk behind his helmet and mentally spoke to himself as he loaded a thermal clip on his SMG.

(I swear that she's like a more regal and refined version of Jack with her love of fighting balanced by her royalty status. Still, she's got the moves, skills, and heart to be here.)

He placed that aside as he and Batman spotted one of the aliens smoking still from sudden exposure to sunlight. He looked at Batman and spoke to the Dark Knight as he knew that there was no way that either of them missed that.

"You saw that?"

"Yes, looks like we're about to find out more on the aliens."

Both men followed both Diana and J'onn as the mission was still on, and only Dylan knew that behind them was his ship, ready to make it's move to support them should he call it in for battle. Dylan was sure that this battle was going to move in to the really hard phase and he knew that he had to be at his best. He only hoped that the rest of the teams he was working with were going to do all right in their own missions.

…

In Metropolis…

Hawkgirl and Superman had some level of good luck as they were finally able to takedown some of the walkers. Superman managed to use his speed and raw strength to knock done one of the last walkers. The Thanagarian soon came into the fact was able to use her mace to make sure that the last remaining walker could not get up. Superman then used a karate style chop to cut one of the legs and used it to make a hole into the factory. He did not hesitate to put all of his strength into the throw and he turned to call to Hawkgirl.

"Hawkgirl, follow me!"

The walked in and Superman told her to keep her eyes open, to which she replied.

"I always do."

It was not long before they came under fire from the aliens and Superman was about to handle it while telling Hawkgirl to stay back before the woman ignored him and charged in with more than serious intent. The Kryptonian watched as the winged woman used her charged mace to bash the aliens around with considerable force, forcing him to duck when one flew overhead and was in a mess behind him.

"Whoa."

He turned as Shaeyra spoke while walking ahead to lead the two.

'What? There's a time for words, and a time for action and this is obviously the time for action."

Superman shook his head a bit and hoped that the other teams were doing all right on their own, even though he had no doubt that there would be some conflict.

…

Back in Vietnam…

Green Lantern was in a foul mood as he had finally freed Flash from most of the gunk that had held him captive and he had managed to do so while getting himself and Flash away from the enemy so he could free the speedster from the rest of the gunk. He was not happy on how the mission was turning out and there was the chance that they were going to have to pull back soon before things got really bad. And it was already getting to that stage now.

How it happened was due to the fact that instead of listening to him outlining a plan to take down the walkers, the speedster from Central City scoffed at the idea of having a plan and moved ahead. His antics did distract the walkers, but it also got him into trouble as he inadvertently stepped on what appeared to be some form of mine. Which resulted in the speedster being covered by the gunk, and was when he moved in to save his 'partner' before he was killed by the walkers either by being blasted or skewered.

"Of all the boneheaded, ill advised and reckless things to do on a mission of importance like this one, even an FNG fresh out of boot would have better sense than you. In your entire career Flash, have you ever heard of the concept of teamwork?"

"Uh, maybe we should save the motivational speeches for later? Like when we don't have massive alien walkers trying to kill us?"

As soon as he was free, the two tried to get back into the fight and while it seemed that they were finally getting somewhere, things took a turn for the worse. The alien walkers tried to take down Lantern's shield, but got nowhere until they decided to take out the shield by targeting the Green Lantern and fired a pod shaped missile that released a powerful yellow gas that was some sort of tranquilizer drug.

The weakness of the Lantern ring came to play as the gas bypassed the shield and soon drove Green Lantern to the ground in an unconscious state.

"GL!"

Flash reached the downed Lantern using his speed to make his arms move the gas away. It worked but it became obvious to the speedster that his partner was now officially out. And that was enough to make the light hearted speedster get serious and he saw that sticking around as more walkers came at them was a bad idea. And with that in mind he quickly got the unconscious Lantern and high tailed it out of there.

Their mission to take out the factory in Vietnam was a bust and now they would have to hope that the others were doing a much better job than they were at the moment.

…

Back in Metropolis…

Superman and Hawkgirl moved deeper into the factory, the two of them were ready for a possible ambush and Superman knew that it was going to happen soon enough if they were this deep in the enemy's backyard. Hawkgirl was taking the whole situation seriously and the Thanagarian was tense, holding her mace close to her and she spoke seriously.

"They're close by…I can almost smell them."

Superman was not too comfortable with the way Shaeyra acted and asked the question that was in his mind after seeing her decimate the aliens. It was not the first time he had met people who had such a desire for combat, he had met Lobo, Maxima, and a few others, but usually this attitude was not what he expected from someone like Hawkgirl. He had little knowledge of her due to not being where she had been located on Earth, but he was still curious.

"Are you always this eager to fight?"

Shaeyra turned and replied stoically as she had a very accurate idea on what was the reason behind the question.

"My home-world Thanagar is a war like world, there it's either you strike first, or you die. And believe me Superman, the very second you don't strike first, it's over for you."

Superman's reply to that was cut short as the aliens came back for more but instead of engaging the two of them in either close or ranged combat like before they retreated. Superman wondered why but got the answer as the tunnel was suddenly sealed in front of him and Hawkgirl and then behind them. They were soon hit by gas, and Hawkgirl was down as she was trying her best to recover from the sudden release of gas in the room. Whatever the gas was, it was potent though his Kryptonian physiology allowed him to have some brief resistance to it, resistance he planned to use.

"Hang on Hawkgirl! I'll….AAAAAAGGGGGG!"

Superman's attempt to rip open the door behind him was cut short when massive amounts of energy were unleashed on him that forced him down, he was still injured and he too was soon overtaken by the gas due to the shock of energy that smashed into his body at the same time which lowered his resistance to the gas.

As soon as that occurred, both heroes were soon retrieved by the aliens for who knows what purpose.

…

Back in Cairo…

Dylan was quick to support the others as he moved ahead and firing several blasts of with his Hurricane SMG. The rounds helped pin down the aliens and take out a few of them, he was not alone in the attack as Batman was quick to toss explosive batarangs at the alien forces to support the Spectre. The two of them were not alone as J'onn and Diana were coming in and attacking the alien forces. Both of them used hand to hand combat and they were not alone as Batman took one of his weapons, which was an electrified knuckle.

The weapon proves useful as Batman takes down several attackers and he was not alone as Dylan used his Omni-Blade to curt down and stab the aliens attacking them. He quickly spotted one alien about to aim at Diana from a corridor and he quickly summoned a Barrier with his Biotics to block the bolt as best he could.

Diana turned and spotted the attack as she quickly used her lasso to grab the alien and yank the attacker forward and then smacked the attacker with a punch that sent it flying and smashing into a stain on the ground. She smiled at Dylan and planned to repay the debt and Dylan knew it, and he spoke to the Amazon.

"No need, you can pay that debt later."

Diana nodded and Dylan quickly turned to shoot another alien attacker coming right at Batman from behind. The Dark Knight had turned to attack only to see the alien get cut down, he turned to see Dylan popping out the thermal clip from his SMG, and he soon moved to using his Falcon Assault Rifle but not before the Spectre spoke to him.

"You all right Batman?"

"Yes, but we have to keep moving, I have no doubt that the aliens know now that we're here."

Dylan nodded as he moved ahead, taking point with his Falcon Assault Rifle and they were soon cut off by the aliens. They managed to fight off the attackers and tried a new path to try and locate the core of the factory. But as they were moving forward on the new path, it was only minutes before they were once more under fire.

Diana did not like that one bit and made her displeasure clear.

"They've cut us off again!"

Dylan had already an idea as to why as this situation reminded him of the Collector Base he and his crew dealt with before.

"This is their base, so it should have some form of warning and surveillance system that's guiding them to our location. We just can't see it!"

Batman agreed to that assessment as he tossed another batarang at another band of aliens coming their way.

"Then there's not doubt we're going to be boxed in soon if we don't move."

Diana then realized that J'onn could help in this matter, he knew the enemy after all so he could help in finding out just where the core of this factory was. And the same could be said for Batman and Dylan, but when all three of them turned, they spotted that the Martian was not moving and his eyes glowed.

This reminded Dylan a bit of how Biotics would act at times so instead of trying to wake J'onn up, he waited and soon they all got the answer on why the Martian was acting this way. He told them that both Superman and Hawkgirl were out of action and captured by the aliens. The news that the aliens would no doubt feed on both the Kryptonian and the Thanagarian filled all three of them with revulsion but they knew they had to keep moving for the chance to make sure that Superman and Hawkgirl were going to be rescued after they were done here.

It took them some time but they soon made their way to the core of the factory from a safe position, so far they had not been found yet by the aliens and that was good news. The Spectre carried his Assault Rifle and Batman was ready as J'onn finally spotted what they were looking for and pointed it out to them. The target in question appeared to be some sort of crystal suspended in some form of fluid that was no doubt being pumped everywhere in the facility and soon out into the atmosphere once darkness came over it. There were a number of aliens there and no doubt were the ones who were going to protect it from them.

"There, that crystal is the one controlling the Ion Matrix flow of the whole factory, if we can acquire it, we might be able to figure out a solution that can break their grip on Earth. We tried to do the same thing before, but by the time we attempted it, there were too few of us to make it viable, which led to…our last stand. Here we may have a chance, but I'll need a distraction to get close enough."

Diana nodded and cracked her knuckles a bit as she replied.

"You will have one J'onn."

Dylan and Batman got ready and soon Diana made her move as well as they did, Dylan fired a grenade into several advancing guards who were caught off guard and were soon blown to nothing but piles of goo by the detonation. Batman did likewise with one of his batarangs and soon Diana made her strike, attacking the operators nearby. All f this allowed J'onn to finally move in and phase himself to get the crystal. He soon got the crystal and that was the signal for them all to pull out.

But the aliens were not going to make it the least bit easy for them as they began to attack with even greater ferocity, making the heroes realize that now was the right time to leave. Diana covered the retreat and so did Dylan while Batman moved ahead to help scout the way ahead and fight at the same time. However, one alien soldier managed to finally hit J'onn and send the Martian hitting the ground in pain. The Martian was alive but he had been rendered unconscious and had dropped the crystal.

Dylan and Batman covered him as Diana flew in to help her injured comrade while she was covered by the others. Batman scooped up the crystal and they were on the way to escape once more, but then Dylan spotted the doors closing and quickly used his Biotics to lift both Diana and J'onn away from them. His Biotics cut off as soon as the door closed in and Batman shouted to Diana.

"GET OUT OF HERE! NOW!"

"NO!"

Diana rushed back to help the others as J'onn recovered enough to move and stand on his own, but she was too late as the doors locked down. She tried to use her strength to break through the barriers and she saw on the other side that both the Spectre and Batman were doing the same. But she was horrified when she saw flashes of lasers behind the walls and she could not help but fear the worst.

"J'onn! Are they…?"

J'onn reached out with his people's telepathy and shook his head.

"They are gone…"

Diana was saddened immensely by this and could help but speak in sadness.

"Hera help us."

The two knew that staying here was not going to help, they had to leave and meet up with the others and hope that they could still stop this invasion. But already the loss of two more of their allies weighed heavily on them, Diana most of all.

…

Unknown to Diana, J'onn managed to mentally shield the minds of both Dylan and Batman though the Martian had to exert a bit higher in terms of power over the Spectre. This was helpful as they had actually managed to fight their way through as before the beams could hit the pair, Dylan fired out a Singularity at the alien attackers. Just as the two of them quickly ducked from the incoming fire that had hit the wall which had made Diana believe they were killed, and only after they had left..

The attack caught Batman by surprise as he had not expected this, he thought the man would erect a Barrier like before but he watched as the aliens were sent up into the air as if gravity itself had suddenly gone completely haywire, the Dark Knight then watched as the sphere detonated and sent the aliens flying back in different directions and were soon out. He turned and saw the man actually trying to stand up and he was quickly concerned by this.

(Damn…I really need to get some more training in…I never used a Singularity like that level before.)

Dylan was exhausted somewhat by the use of the Singularity as he had not tapped into that much Biotic power before. He usually left the Biotics back in the day to Liara, Wrex, or Kaiden, and then to Miranda, Jack, Samara, Thane, and Jacob. He was a soldier and a Commando so he was more into blasting things with weapons than Biotics. So he was not as well trained in that field of combat than the others which was why he was exhausted.

(One thing's for sure, I am going to need to eat and drink a lot when this is all over.)

"You all right?"

Dylan turned to face Batman and nodded.

"Yeah…give me a second…never used Biotics like that before."

Batman had no idea what Biotics was, but he knew that questions of that caliber had to wait for now as they had to leave. They thankfully still had the crystal and with it they had a chance, and it was not long before Dylan finally managed to get himself up and off they went, through the same area they went it, but there were a lot of foes that were there so they moved away and soon Dylan fired several grenades from his Falcon Assault Rifle and soon blew a hole large enough for them to escape from as well as him firing several more grenades to the walls above them to cover their escape as alien soldiers came at them.

As soon as the two of them got out of the hole, they both turned to see the aliens react negatively to the sunlight, enough to actually make on them smoke like it was being roasted. And Batman was quick to reply to what he saw.

"They are vulnerable to UV radiation. That must be the other reason why they take great pains to avoid being exposed to the sunlight, and why their factories block out the sunlight once they landed on Earth."

It was also here that EDI spoke, revealing herself to the Dark Knight as well.

"I concur with that assessment Commander, the analysis of the tissue samples you sent me from those you terminated before shows that the creatures have no natural defense to UV radiation emitted by the sun. That is possibly why they deployed factories to counteract the cycle of sunrise on a planet. Removing the effect is possible by destroying the towers with a concerted strike on the factories or by creating a device that can reverse the Ion flow."

Batman was surprised when he heard the voice that sounded female yet had some sort of machine like as well. He however decided to leave those questions for later as he knew that time was in short supply.

"I can handle that with the tools in my lab in Gotham."

Dylan ran through that idea and replied.

"No time for that, the aliens would no doubt already be bringing in reinforcements, we'll get what we need on the way there. EDI, get the Normandy down here and get the Lab prepped up for Batman to use. Get him whatever resources he needs from the storage area and have the micro-fabricators warmed up now. Once we're clear of the factory and onboard warm up the Thanix Cannon and destroy the factory."

"Understood Commander, I am moving the Normandy down now."

Shepard nodded and quickly turned to Batman and replied.

"Now is not the time to ask, come on, we need to get moving."

As soon as the two heroes got to moving out from the factory, Batman spotted something shimmering brightly at the sky, and soon out came one of the largest ships he had ever seen. The ship had not appeared on the radar of the Bat plane and he had not seen it prior to their arrival so that meant it must have some form of stealth system that was unlike what he had seen before. The ship soon touched down and opened what appeared to be a cargo bay as Spectre as he called himself turned to him.

"Can you're fighter be sent back to Gotham?"

"Yes, it has an auto-pilot system onboard."

"Good, let's get this show going, is everything set EDI?"

"Yes Commander, the Lab is prepped and ready for Batman to use, and the Thannix Cannon is ready for combat."

Spectre nodded and guided Batman into the Normandy as he also pressed the control to send the Bat Plane back to Gotham. Once they were onboard the Dark Knight only felt a slight rise and soon the ship was up and they came to the CIC via elevator. All the while Batman was trying to take in the looks of the alien ship he was in. The interior was certainly different yet he noted with his detective's eye that it retained the look of being made by human hands. Yet it was made in a level that he knew was not possible without years or decades to study and practice.

Once they got to the CIC, Shepard turned and spoke to EDI who appeared near the holo-display at the elevator.

"EDI, help Batman with the lab on how to reverse engineer the crystal and find a way to break the grip of the alien factories. In the mean time, I need you do get ready for ground operations, get your gynoid form ready for combat."

"Yes Commander, the Lab is to your right Batman, if you have need of some materials and equipment, feel free to send me the requests, I will be warming up my gynoid form as we do so."

Batman nodded as he took out the crystal and headed there, only for EDI to then show both him and Dylan the sight of the Normandy's Thanix Cannon firing up and then destroying the factory in one fell strike. Dylan nodded and knew that this was only possible if the factor y was not in a heavily populated area so doing it in other cities was not the least bit advisable due to civilian losses and collateral damage. Once they were in the clean he spoke to Batman.

"Time to get to work, we'll keep ourselves off the radar until you and EDI are finished."

…

Back in Metropolis…

The situation was mad for sure as the people were trying to survive this new alien invasion. And the people were able to show just how they all coped in a crisis of this magnitude, some were able to keep their wits about them and head off to the nearest evac sites established by the police and the army. Others did their best to find shelter and escape the mobile patrols of enemy walkers, and others…well they were rioting and looting as well, showing once more that the chaotic nature that is in men can come out.

The sight of it filled Diana with disgust as she looked at the way the people were acting, and she could not help but speak out her disappointment and disgust. She had thought that with their militaries the way they were now, the people in Man's world would stand together and resist, instead they did this. Rioting, looting, and causing mayhem instead of standing as one and fighting to save their homes and families.

It was loathsome to her.

"I cannot believe they would become like this, the Spectre and Batman gave their lives to defend such inconsiderate and foolish people? It's unbecoming of such heroes like them and perhaps my mother spoke truly that saving man was a foolish action."

J'onn was able to understand the meaning of Diana's statements and replied.

"You should not be so harsh on them, they are merely caught by the chaos here and act out of fear and confusion."

Diana wished that she could accept it, but to know that both heroes died for these people was not welcoming to her. Batman's skill and abilities for someone who did not have such abilities as Superman and the others, was something she had no problem respecting in the slightest bit. And the Spectre's skills in combat as well as his calm and yet respectful nature was also of interest to her. He was the first to accept her among the others and had actually spoken the truth about not letting her temper get the better of her.

(To think they died for them…)

She shook her head as she finally spotted Flash and Green Lantern who were surprised to have been contacted as they had come back to help with the evacuation. The speedster asked where Batman and the Spectre were, and they were informed by J'onn that both of them were sadly killed in the line of duty. This had surprised and that had weighed on them the difficulty of their task as they were now the only ones.

The gathered heroes decided to rescue both Superman and Hawkgirl from the factory they had infiltrated. But for some reason the aliens offered no resistance. Something was not right in the minds of the heroes and they were soon proven right as they came to both Superman and Hawkgirl who were restrained. They turned out to be copies as the aliens quickly moved in and subdued the last heroes there on Earth.

The aliens did not show faces that would be described as human, but it was obvious to those skilled in body movement language that the aliens were pleased. With two of the gathered heroes gone and these ones captured, nothing and no one was going to stop them.

Unknown to all the heroes but one, and the aliens, the two supposedly slain heroes were coming back. And this time, they had backup to boot for this counter offensive.

…

Outside of the city limits…

The Normandy quickly touched down outside of Metropolis and soon out came Batman with his new device fully made and tested, along with him were Dylan still carrying his current load-out and wearing his Collector Armor. But they were not alone as EDI was now with them, carrying a Widow Anti-Material Sniper Rifle, a Vindicator Battle Rifle, and a Carnifex Heavy Pistol with the Battle Rifle fully extended and ready for use. This meant that the gynoid body that EDI was using at this moment the combat style of Garrus as Shepard had requested it, Garrus was by far the best sharpshooter Dylan worked with in his life, the next being Ash despite her skills being more with Assault Rifles that Sniper Weapons, and the next Snipers being Legion, and Thane. This was supplemented with the original EDI's ability to handle security hacking, lock bypassing and more. He was going to need that level of skill though he made sure to have some of Legion and Tali's skills downloaded into the operation matrix of EDI.

The Normandy soon took off and went invisible to avoid attracting attention and that left the trio to get to the factory that was the very first that was deployed on the surface.

The Dark Knight had to admit that working with these two was definitely different as both seemed to be quite comfortable with working with one another. And he was impressed at the fact that this EDI could be able to control the ship and move with precision in that body. Had she been decked in a disguise simulating a human female with clothing on, he would not have been able to tell the difference.

They moved quickly and efficiently with both EDI and Dylan in the lead, and once they got close to the factory, they made their way into it. EDI scanned the area ahead and then spoke to both Batman and Dylan.

"I am detecting vital signs from the others in our group Commander, they all appear to be alive, but appear to have been restrained."

"How far are we from them EDI?"

"At least several more meters, I am picking up high concentrations of alien signatures as well, and it seems that a massive ship has arrived in the planet's atmosphere. As Executive Lawson would have put it Commander, it seems that leadership has finally arrived."

Dylan nodded and they moved out as they knew that they had little time, he would have ordered the Normandy to attack the ship, but decided that stealth was more preferable at this moment than simply blasting the ship. They needed to take a chance and eliminate the alien leadership than let it get away.

…

EDI's data proved to be right as some of the space observation stations on the ground that managed to remain somewhat operational spotted the incoming ship. It was massive and certainly looked to be made of the same substance as the aliens. That implied something of a techno-organic nature in the aliens though the ship did appear to have more armor than most. As soon as it entered the cloud that covered up the city, a smaller shuttle came in and soon the heroes who were restrained were greeted by Carter, who then revealed just what he was.

Much to the dismay and shock of a certain blue and red wearing superhero with an S on his chest, he had no idea that Carter was the one helping the invasion. But he decided to focus on trying to escape and make sure that he was not going down without a fight.

…

As the trio came closer, they finally got to see the leader of the alien invasion, just as it targeted J'onn and began to torture the last of the Martians. And the one who had been a major thorn on their side ever since.

Dylan gave a look of disgust as he looked at the leader of the alien forces and was reminded of the Thorian he had to deal with on Feros a few years back. He then spoke to Batman and EDI as he knew that while he was feeling the desire to free J'onn, that would only serve to blow their cover and waste the alien survivor's efforts.

"We have got to make our move soon, EDI and I will cover you Batman once we get through that barrier and attach the device. Once that's done, EDI and I will cover you as we free the others."

Batman nodded and EDI did the same as they knew that they only had one shot at this so they had to get it right. The aliens had not been aware that they were around. No doubt feeling that their victory was assured now that the heroes of Earth that were here would not stand at all to them. And the fact that their leader was there with them as well, that was a mistake on their part as the Spectre, the A.I, and Batman were closing in on their target. The trio moved in and were now in position and ready to make their move, and it came just as the alien leader finally noted that J'onn had managed to keep one last secret.

…

"You have something here…a secret, what sort of plan has your feeble machinations conjured up in your final moments J'onn?"

The Imperium wanted to know just what was the last move of it's forces' last known adversary and it dug deeper into the Martian's mind. J'onn screamed as the alien leader buried it's tentacles into him as the other heroes watched in horror and anger at this. But he knew that he had to hold on for just a little bit longer…

"Answer me…"

"AAAAAAAAGGGGGGGG!"

The pain grew more and more…

"Answer me….answer me J'onn…"

Just a little bit more…

"Answer me Martian!"

Almost there…just about there…

"ANSWER ME!"

NOW!

"NOW!"

In that moment, two attacks came, a streak of blue light and followed by a large object came out and smashed hard into the shield protecting the Ion crystal core in the factory's heart. The impact caused a wide explosion as the beings below turned to see none other than Batman, Spectre, and another humanoid female looking being carrying one mean looking sniper rifle.

"Whoa! They're alive! And they have backup too!"

Flash was relieved while Diana was amazed that they were alive.

"How did they make it back from certain death?"

J'onn finally spoke as he began to fight back against the Imperium's attacks on him and his mind. The plan worked well and now the time for inaction was at an end.

"I shielded them…so they would not be found!"

Batman quickly laced the device through the now weakened section of the shield and placed the device on the crystal, activating it. Soon the crystal's red color changed to blue and the fluid inside of the chamber turned blue as well

The Carter doppelganger was shocked and shouted at what was going on and made that clear to the Spectre, EDI, and Batman.

"What have you done?"

Batman replied in his usual fashion of being stoic and calm before the odds that were there. No reason for him to tell the alien fake and his cohorts what happened after all. The results of his time in the Normandy's remarkably well stocked and equipped lab would do the answering for him.

"Reversed the ion charge."

The leader of the aliens quickly shouted two simple orders to it's minions.

"DESTROY THE CRYSTAL! KILL THEM!"

Dylan looked at Bruce and spoke as he knew that he might want to switch to all out combat.

"You free the others, EDI and I keep them off your back."

Batman nodded and quickly used his grappling gun and moved to the others as the newly altered fluid continued to spread through the factory systems. As for EDI and Dylan, the moved into action, EDI went first and leaped into action as she quickly switched to her Vindicator Battle Rifle and soon landed ahead of Dylan to cover him. As for Dylan, he decided to try and replicate that same trick that he had seen Samara use when they first met back on Ilium, when she was not yet part of his crew.. he quickly summoned his Biotics in a bright display as he soon was covered in a Biotic field to slow his descent.

As soon as he did so, he landed on the ground and took out both his Falcon Assault Rifle as he landed next to EDI and both of them began to unleash an amount of heavy fire. The aliens were quick to focus their attention on the two armed opponents as Batman soon joined the other heroes to free them. This left him and EDI to do their part in this fight and they were going to make sure that Batman was not going to be hindered. EDI quickly took down three of her attackers before using her rifle's scope to take down two more on a ledge and shot their weapons to the ground, making their weapons explode. Dylan killed two more of his own and then fired a grenade from the grenade launcher which arced over the heads of three more alien shooters to suddenly explode behind them, blowing them apart.

He then covered EDI as she quickly fired several more slugs into the next attackers before ejecting her thermal clip to load a fresh one. He was soon covered EDI as he also did the same as she shot two more alien attackers in the face before quickly launching an Incinerate attack on three more aliens. The trio burst into flames and were screaming in pain, two more attacked with their blades, no doubt hoping to cut the gynoid down and then her partner.

Dylan countered that idea as he soon got up with his Geth Plasma Shotgun and blasted one of the attackers right in the chest, sending it down while using the bayonet to stab into the alien's face and then yanked the weapons down to gut the attacker. He fired a few more shots from his Plasma Shotgun and then placed it aside to use both his Hurricane and Eagle, it was not the best of moves, but now was not the time to ponder it as he switched to using Inferno Ammunition and soon lit the nearest aliens on fire.

EDI was not far behind either as she turned to using her Carnifax Pistol and blasted down several more of the aliens. Both heroes moved back and got into some cover and began to lay it on. The alien soldiers were doing their best to attack and kill the heroes, but with both the Spectre and EDI covering the heroes, it was proving difficult, Dylan then turned his attention to the walls and used his Falcon 's grenades to blast holes into the walls, exposing more of the sun and it was having a very potent effect as more of the aliens were finally exposed. Both of them now resorted to their Sniper Rifles and were unleashing hell on them.

J'onn on the other hand, now fought back and began to drag the alien leader into the sunlight.

"You burrow underground and shun the light? Why do you hide, is it because it burns your pale, putrid and corrupt flesh?"

"AAAAAAGGGGGGGGG!"

The Imperium screamed out in pain as it was hit by the sun and already the results were there as the flesh of the alien began to boil and smoke. That sight made the heroes a bit green and Flash summed it up with one word.

"Gross!"

…

Batman was working on freeing the others and it was when he got to Diana that she spoke to him.

"How did you manage to do this?"

"We found out the creatures suffered horribly in UV radiation from the sun back in Cairo. We studied the crystal and developed the counter to the cloud. The Spectre's ship had a well stocked lab and his companion is here to help us out."

Diana nodded with relief as she and the others were soon freed and now all of the gathered heroes launched their counter attacks. Diana came in to support Hawkgirl as both women charged in with fists and mace at the ready. Superman busied himself by attacking the walls to let more light from the sun into the place and then come back down to deal with more shooters. Flash used his speed and knocked down several of the alien fighters, but not before looking at EDI.

And despite the fact that it was obvious that EDI was a cyborg and not an actual flesh and blood being, Flash LIKED what he saw as he moved over to her and helped knock down one of the alien soldiers trying to come in and skewer the robot.

"Whoa…for a robot, you look seriously attractive!"

EDI looked at him and actually raised her metallic eyebrow and replied as she quickly released her own attack with a fist covered in high intensity fire. Flash was surprised to see that EDI had stabbed her attack into the chest of another alien about to skewer him and the alien was literally lit up on fire by the A.I. The gynoid female looked at Flash and replied as her flame covered faded away and returned to normal in a tone of seriousness

"Fight now and focus on that, are we clear?"

"Yes Ma'am!"

The battle grew fiercer as Green Lantern attacked with beams and used shields made from his ring to even up the odds, and he was not alone as Batman was in the fight, using the taser knuckle he had and the batarangs. Dylan and EDI moved in and began to fight back until Dylan had to use Lift to send several of the Aliens into the air to be swatted like baseballs by Hawkgirl. This however drained Dylan as he was still straining from the Biotics and fell to his knees. This was not lost to a band of aliens who decided to shoot and kill the badly exhausted Spectre, Dylan saw it and tried to summon the energy to aim and fire but the shots were intercepted by Diana who then quickly took off her tiara and used it like a boomerang as it smashed hard into their weapons and made those explode just as she caught it and smashed with her fist another attacker intent on gutting the two of them.

She put back her tiara and help him up as Dylan spoke in thanks.

"Thanks a lot Wonder Woman."

Diana raised an eyebrow at that and replied.

"Why call me that?"

"Uh…just came into my mind actually…if you don't like it."

"No, I am all right with that, my mother…called me her little wonder actually, and the name fits to an extent. And you are welcome but I feel my debt to you is paid."

Dylan laughed as he managed to take something from his pack and jammed it into an access port in his Collector Armor. It was a special energy supplement that EDI developed to help him recover after heavy Biotics use, and it got him back into fighting shape. That was enough to have him attack the enemy and bring the fight to them all. Superman and the others who were not in the fight due to the decreasing numbers of the aliens soon went to rescuing the people being held prisoner. The ones who could fly were soon ripping the alien factory roof open to let more light in and many of the alien soldiers were now being killed by the light above them.

The alien leader finally managed to free itself from J'onn after one desperate blast of energy that made the Martian lose his grip on it. The pain from the burns and the fact that it's plan was falling apart convinced the Imperium to leave, and nothing was going to stop it. It knocked away the Carter doppelganger and soon left it to die in the sun and escape in the shuttle.

Diana spotted that and used her lasso to hold the ship down and keep the leader of the invaders from escaping, Superman was able to defend J'onn alongside EDI and Dylan who used their weapons to do as much damage alongside the Kryptonian's use of heat vision on the aliens before directing their attention to the alien ship despite the fact their fire power was not much.

Diana held tightly on the lasso, her intent clear as she was not going to let the monstrous leader of the invasion escape that easily. It had to be brought into account for all the lives it and it's minions had ruined, and the worlds they pillaged. And she had every intention to do just that to the creature and those like it .But the alien ship fired a beam at Diana, forcing the Amazon to block it and allow the aliens to escape.

Hawkgirl however came on the scene and used her mace to stop the ship, allowing the fully recovered Amazon to catch the rope once more to prevent the Imperium from escaping just as a doorway was revealed from the alien mother-ship. Diana yanked hard on the lasso and dragged the being back and then used all her strength to slam the alien vessel into the walls of the alien factory. This further damaged the ship just as Hawkgirl's next strike was the final deathblow. The Imperium screamed in fury as it's vessel was sent smashing into the factory and nearly crushing Batman but Flash saves the Dark Knight at the last moment.

The factory was about to blow and the heroes went to work saving the people trapped inside the same pods the aliens used, with Green Lantern carrying them in a bubble while the others flew out of the now destroyed factory. The cloud cover was gone and it seemed that light was filling Metropolis once more. However the alien vessel was now trying to escape no doubt abandoning it's fellows and hoping to avoid facing the fate that claimed it's leader.

Diana saw that and spoke seriously and with anger as she and the others were near the Daily Planet on top of the roof of the tall building..

"The cowards are fleeing!"

Dylan looked at the alien ship now that it was exposed to daylight and was not in the mood to let these alien bastards get away. They had come here with the intent to strip this world bare and consume all life…just like the Reapers had done to so many other civilizations before his and that of the galactic community. Even after conversing with the Catalyst he still did not love the Reapers much. These were not the Reapers, but they were not going to leave this world without getting what was due to them.

"Not today they're not, their reign of terror ends today."

Shepard focused his techno-organic abilities and soon the Normandy came towards them, the ship soon de-cloaked as it came over the city and it's appearance caught the heroes off guard. The sole exception was Batman as he had seen the ship before and it soon stopped next to both EDI and Shepard as he turned to face the heroes as he spoke to them seriously.

"You all coming?"

Diana did not need a second invitation as she moved to join the pair as the ramp of the Normandy's side entrance to the hanger bay, newly placed in it's construction was now there, the other heroes were quick to take up the chance and all of them boarded the Normandy. As soon as all of them were in, the Normandy powered up it's systems to full and soon got itself ready to follow it's target into the bowels of space itself.

…

Space…

The heroes followed Shepard into the Normandy and they were still surprised with the exception of Batman in the way the ship looked. The very second they came into the CIC, Dylan was greeted by EDI in her more conventional form.

"Commander, good to see you in the ship and with company no less."

"Thanks EDI how far are we from the invader ship?"

"Closing the distance Commander, I do not detect any sign of retaliation from them, they seem intent on leaving the system at all possible speed. The death of their leader seems to have broken their will to fight. Orders Commander?"

"Warm up the Javelin Torpedoes and also the Thannix Cannon, we are not letting them get away easily like that. Warm up the Guardian Laser Systems as well on the chance they deploy fighters and missiles; have the Kinetic Barriers at full power as well for extra defense. The people who suffered by their hands have to be avenged EDI, human and not."

EDI glowed with that as she replied.

"Understood Commander, I am now powering up the Normandy's weapons and Barriers. We will be in range now, incoming fighters."

The alien forces did spot the Normandy and soon deployed fighters to try and stop the reborn Alliance warship, but EDI, this version of EDI with the flight skills and techniques of Joker hardwired into her systems, coupled with her new Reaper made body was more than able to respond. Guardian Lasers fired up the second the alien fighters came into range, while the Kinetic Barriers which had Reaper technology and Quarian technology installed managed to hold their own against energy blasts aimed at them by their attackers.

Several alien fighters were destroyed while Normandy quickly flew around the smaller craft and soon unleashed several banks of Javelins at the alien vessel. This was soon followed by a blast from the Thanix Cannon. The weapons impact hit the alien ship hard and sections of it were blown away. The group watched as the bear began to surgically gut the alien ship and then hit what could be guessed was the drive core, and then EDI appeared in her regular form and confirmed what the others suspected.

"Commander, I detect massive energy readings all over the ship, it's similar to a wild cat effect on a ship so it is safe to assume that the ship's main power source and engines have been hit."

Dylan nodded as he and the others watched the ship go boom in a massive flash of light, enough to force the other heroes to cover their eyes from the blast. Once the flash was over, Shepard looked again and saw that nothing was left of the alien ship, and he was satisfied with that as he faced the other heroes.

"It's a safe bet they won't be coming back, now we have to help clean up the rest of them that are still on Earth."

That was when John finally decided to speak.

"Not before we get some answers, who exactly are you? Where the heck did you come from? Who built this ship and that partner of yours?"

Dylan knew these were valid questions but he knew that as long as the aliens had units still stuck on the surface of Earth, now was not the time. Had the situations been reversed and they were the ones in his universe, he and the others would have asked the same questions too.

"That can wait Green Lantern, once the aliens have been removed, then we can talk, I understand the reason for the questions and had the situation been reversed, I'd be the ones asking them myself. But you know as well as I do that until the enemy is gone, now is not the time for such discussions, so can we go down to Earth and deal with them or not?"

John hesitated a bit more and relented as Dylan turned to EDI who had remained silent for the time being.

"EDI, bring up all the locations of the remaining alien factories and strong holds that are still on Earth, we still have some serious house cleaning to do."

"Understood Commander, I am bringing them up now."

…

It was days later that the combined heroes began to clean up the remains of the alien forces that had not been able to evacuate from the battle zone when their main ship was destroyed in its attempt to flee and their leader slain. The heroes alongside Dylan and EDI were recorded by the media and many were surprised at the arrival of several new heroes, the heroes in question naturally being EDI, Dylan, Diana, and J'onn since the others were already known to them. But what was clear was they the ones mentioned were indeed there to help them and so they could not say no to them. But as it began to die down, some of the military leaders began to talk.

One such leader was none other than the very same general who was one of the most vocal critics of the disarmament plan proposed by the fake Carter. He felt vindicated by his worries but was professional enough not to mention it. But that did not mean that he was going to be less vocal about his opinion on global television.

"We got lucky that time and the heroes on site helped with the defeat of the aliens, but how can we be sure that we won't be attacked again? Darksied's invasion years ago were bad enough, but this recent attack shows that we cannot take any chances now. We need to find a way to be prepared for the worst to come, whether the threat is here on Earth our outside of it."

In the Batcave, only a few days after his battle alongside the others, Bruce listened to the news report and began to think long and hard about what was said. And though his expressions were still hard to read even if he did not have his mask on, the billionaire crime fighter now had an idea. An idea which in light of the situation involved a sideline project that he and the people in Waynetech had been working on for the past few years in secret well away from the prying eyes of the stockholders of Waynetech. It for a different set of objectives when it concerned space and everything about it but now it was going to be repurposed for something greater, it had all that was needed and more than self sufficient. And in his mind, was more than able to handle the mission that the general had unwittingly given the heroes of the world.

…

In deep space…

The massive space station continued to move over the planet Earth and inside the said station were two of the worlds' most recognized heroes. Both of whom shared a level of history with one another and now they were connected for the mission at hand. Clark Kent had to whistle at the station's looks as he and Bruce then looked at the view of Earth itself.

"This is one heck of a move Bruce, your stockholders are aware of this right?"

"This was a line in the aerospace R&D budget in Waynetech, originally this lace was to be used as station for recording and observing space borne phenomenon. Now we can use this to watch for incoming threats to Earth outside and to coordinate things for that as well as dangers down below. I've already listed this as a…contribution by Waynetech to help defend Earth under my name."

Superman shook his head mentally in amusement yet with understanding as he knew that Bruce was not the kind of person to say much about it. But this was a good move either way, this station would be a great help in keeping Earth and its people safe from any more attacks. He soon turned to see none other than Flash who was being joined by Wonder Woman, both of them trying out some new drinks.

"And this place has got one sweet fully stocked kitchen to boot. Want some Iced Mocha big guy?"

Superman smiled a bit and replied.

"No thanks."

Flash shrugged and drank some more as Wonder Woman tried some more of the drink, and despite her calm appearance, she was inwardly enjoying the taste. Such things like this were unheard of in her home island and she made her enjoyment of the cold drink obvious to the others.

"We don't such things like this…'Iced Mocha' back home on Themyscira."

Flash grinned and replied.

"Then stick with me Princess, there's still a lot of things about the world you need to see."

"Perhaps I might do that."

It was also here that Green Lantern and Hawkgirl finally arrived.

"This is an impressive installation. Very impressive, but I get the feeling that there is more to this than just showing off this place. You have something in mind that involves all of us here today, right Superman?"

Superman nodded at that and looked at Earth and as soon as he gathered his thoughts, he spoke to them.

"I once thought that I could handle defending the Earth by myself, but I was wrong, working together we saved the planet and more. That's why instead of working separately we can work together as a team to become a force that can help ensure that the ideals of justice and peace are better protected."

Flash was amused and walked over to the Kryptonian and spoke.

"Work together, like a bunch of Super Friends?"

Superman smirked a bit at the humor there and replied.

"I was thinking more along the lines of a Justice League."

Flash smiled even more and replied.

"You have any idea how corny that sounds?"

He however then turned to face the others in the station and spoke.

"But I think big guy here has a point, working together is a lot more effective and with all of us behind, it can definitely be a good thing. Count me in."

Flash placed his hand on Superman's own as Green Lantern and Hawkgirl did the same thing with the Green Lantern placing his hand over Flash's own while Hawkgirl does the same thing with the two of them showing their willingness to give this idea a chance.

"I'm in."

"So am I."

Diana looked a bit conflicted and then spoke.

"My mother would not approve of this, but Man's world is very interesting to me, very well, I am in."

The Amazon Princess placed her hand on Hawkgirl's own and then they turned to Batman who was looking at the whole thing while being apart from them with Superman spoke to the Dark Knight.

"What about you Batman?"

Bruce replied in his own fashion.

"I'm not much of a people person, but if you need me, and no doubt you will, call me."

"I understand."

"Hold up, where's J'onn?"

They found the Martian looking at a console where the image of Mars was, the alien retained his calm façade but Superman could see that the Martian was not the least bit calm and he could understand just why the Martian looked that way to his now devastated home-world.

"J'onn?"

"Mars is dead and gone now…and I am the last of my kind anywhere."

"J'onn, I know that none of us can take the place of your family at all, but we would be honored if you were to call Earth home."

The Martian looked at the Kryptonian and smiled as they shook their hands, and as they came back to join the others, Flash then asked an important question as he had a feeling that the seven of them were forgetting something or rather someone.

"By the way, what about the Spectre and that A.I ally of his, you know, the hot looking robotic one? Don't they have a stake in this as well?"

The others nodded as well and Batman spoke as he had been trying his best to locate the Normandy though he had no doubt it would be hard to accomplish. Namely due to the fact that is has cloaking technology.

"I've tried looking for his ship but it seems to be well beyond anything that I can use to track ships, no doubt due to the fact that it has cloaking systems."

Wonder Woman then spoke.

"But he and the one called EDI helped us in the battles as well as the cleanup, so we should at least present him the same chance to join this League."

Hawkgirl nodded as she replied.

"I agree with Diana here, but we are going to have a heck of a time since he's pretty much vanished from sight, along with the ship as well."

Green Lantern then spoke as well.

"I've tried to look for him too, but I had little luck even more so since his ship's using technology I have never seen or heard of before. I can guess that he wants to keep himself hidden for now, if he does want to meet us, then he will do it when he wants to."

That was when J'onn spoke to the others.

"We might not need to look for him, he is already coming here."

The others looked and sure enough there was the Normandy and it was a fair distance from them. They soon spotted a shuttle coming in and that made them head to the hanger Bay. Once they got there, they watched the shuttle land. It had some very interesting markings on it and as soon as it opened, out came one lone figure. But this one was wearing a new set of armor, it looked like a futuristic version of medieval armor with a red dragon on it that looked like it was made from blood. The helmet also had an intimidating visor on it to boot. The heroes were confused until the voice came out.

"Don't worry you guys, it's just me, I am wearing one of my other suits, aptly called Blood Dragon."

Flash whistled at that as he could easily why it was called as such and replied.

"Dude, you so have got to tell me who makes those cool suits of yours."

Dylan chuckled a bit at that and replied.

"Sorry Flash, but if I did do that, I would not be able to hold property rights now would I?"

Diana smiled warmly at the Spectre and spoke.

"Spectre, we were just talking about you."

Dylan raised an eyebrow at that and decided not to comment too much about it for now, since he suspected that there was a different meaning there. It was here that Hawkgirl also spoke out as well, she too was curious about where the man had gone.

"Yeah, where exactly did you and EDI go to anyway?"

John looked at them and replied.

"Sorry about that, but EDI and I were busy tracking down any more of the escaping alien ships, making sure none of them come back. She's currently back on the Normandy overseeing some of the recon satellites and making some routine checks and maintenance on the ship though it can take care of itself well enough. What exactly was it that you all talking about?"

Superman then spoke.

"We have a proposition that we wanted to discuss with you."

Dylan thought it over and replied.

"I believe you can ask me that later, I am here since there is something that EDI and I have to discuss with you all as well. And I can bet you all have a good idea just what I want to talk to you all about."

Batman then spoke as he had fairly accurate idea on what was it that the Spartan was going to say.

"You're going to tell us exactly where is it that you two came from and who you both are?"

"Yes, and the Normandy along with EDI have all the data and proof that you will need to see, which is why I am asking you if you don't mind coming to the Ship, I came here on the shuttle and it's able to house all of you right now."

The seven heroes nodded and followed the Spectre as they boarded the shuttle, there was no sing of the pilot and Dylan replied that EDI was the one flying the shuttle eve though she was back in the Normandy. That was surprising and more s for Bruce as he recalled the A.I HARDAC, that rogue A.I had been a major concern, even more so with that creation of him. The cyborg Batman was something he had not expected at all, even more so when it rebelled against it's maker when it thought it had committed murder.

(That A.I of his…could it be as advanced more so than HARDAC?)

Batman shelved those thoughts aside as he had a feeling that he was going to get answers soon enough as the shuttle soon entered the Normandy. Once they were in, the Spectre led them to the elevator and the group looked at the ship's interior, and it was there that they spotted a memorial…the kind one only found at places that commemorated events, or honored fallen heroes in a battle. The League stopped and looked at it and Dylan noted that as he turned around and stood there, waiting for them to make their move.

The heroes looked at the names that were there and could see that some names were that of people and some other names they could not understand. John turned to the Spectre and spoke to him.

"Who's names are these?"

EDI appeared in her gynoid body and replied.

"That is the memorial for the crews who served on the first Normandy and the second."

Hawkgirl was surprised by that and made that obvious to the rest of the others, they had been so intent on fighting the aliens, and chasing the ship that none of them noted the memorial. They had focused on following both the Spectre and his A.I partner that none of them noticed. And days before, they had all headed back to the surface of the world to deal with the aliens os they did not notice it either.

"There were other ships by the name Normandy?"

EDI nodded.

"Yes, but I believe that you all are here for answers pertaining to who we are."

EDI turned to face Dylan and spoke.

"The War Room is ready for the meeting Commander, I take it I am to guide them there?"

"Correct EDI, I will need to get dressed for that, and make sure that all the records we have are ready for display."

"Yes Commander, follow me please."

…

Later…in the Normandy's War Room…

Flash whistled once more as they were in the War Room as this ship was certainly something else in his mind. And the same could be said in the minds of the others in the newly formed Justice League. The CIC was pretty impressive in many respects and so was the War Room, and it was obvious to the rest of the newly formed League that this was a ship built for combat and apparently for coordinating military missions and combat assets. Stewart knew that the most since despite no longer being a US Marine, he knew a War Room when he saw one.

The Spectre left the group in the CIC and left to get dressed into what he deemed would be more acceptable clothing. Normally he would have not mind the fact that he was still in Armor, but he decided against it since it would have looked odd. The heroes were watched By EDI and it was still boggling them a bit since the ship definitely looked different and for one reason or another, it also felt, alive in a way.

It was at that moment that the elevator chimed in and in walked Dylan Shepard, and he was wearing his Alliance Officer's Dress Blues uniform. That got the attention of the League, especially Stewart as he realized that the man before him was indeed a military officer. He had to resist the urge to salute since the way the Spectre walked was that of a commanding officer, and not the kind who got the office through connections or nepotism, but the kind who worked their butts off for it and earned every bit of merit to go with it. The uniform might not match anything he had seen, but to the former Marine Gunnery Sergeant, there was no denying that was a military man's uniform.

Dylan smiled a bit as he soon joined the heroes and replied.

"Sorry for the delay, it's been a while since I have worn my dress blues."

The others nodded as they took in the sight of the man in uniform, Diana was very curious as despite the look, she had to admit the uniform looked very presentable. And it seemed to add to the look of the man before them. Hawkgirl noted that as well and could tell that this was a military officer's uniform, she had seen some things similar to them back home, but this was different.

Superman commented to that.

"It's no problem, but that uniform certainly does not look like any uniform in the Armed Forces I have seen on Earth."

Dylan nodded at as he moved to the table.

"I would not be surprised about that Superman, anyway, EDI and I promised answers, so you will have them the first is no doubt who I am."

The League nodded at that and Dylan was quick to answer that as soon as he composed himself a bit more to gather his thoughts. He knew that EDI could fill in the blanks and he trusted her, it was just not easy to talk about the past that he knew was going to hurt like the devil's own pitchfork being reamed up your ass, but better to get it out and deal with the fallout now than later.

"My name is Dylan Shepard, Commander Dylan of the Systems Alliance, current Captain of the SSV Normandy, N7 Special Forces Marine and a Spectre of the Citadel Council. And before you ask, the Systems Alliance is the organization founded by the nations of Earth for exploration, colonization, science advancement, and military operations in the Galaxy."

…

To be continued…

…

Author's Notes:

There, the latest chapter is now finished and I am pleased to know that this is not going to be a one hit project. Then again, I was not all too known for such things either and I will apologize to the readers in advance for the delays I had done on many of my stories, which I will be updating soon. Now I think there will be some questions on the topic of what I did with the ship, Shepard and EDI, I had hoped that some if not most of the questions were answered in the prologue, but if not, I will be answering them as best I can.

In regards to EDI, she is what I have decided to be a multiclass character since this version of EDI has been born from the data of Shepard's memories and thus she has an array of abilities that were originally only seen in Shepard's crew. The only thing she cannot obviously do is to use Biotics since she is naturally a machine and even the Reapers did not have Biotic abilities so I don't really see why I would install such functions into EDI.

She has the ability to access the skill patterns of the others so that makes her a valuable addition to the rest of the team and she will play her part in fighting against the enemies on the field. Just like EDI did when she took over the gynoid body of 'Dr. Eva Core' and used it for her own uses in the field of combat. And as you might have guessed, this will make the League nine in total, similar to what happened in my Halo story, only difference there is that Cortana remains as she is while EDI has a physical form of her own.

You can bet that it might be interesting to see how Flash will try to flirt with EDI, and for all you know, a certain nanomachine build android might sit up and take notice as well. Who can guess how this whole situation might turn out in the end, but like they saw, this should be very interesting indeed.

…

On the topic of Shepard's Biotic abilities, I would like to stress that he only had a few months of training and had never been much of a Biotic, so it stands to reason that unlike the others in his group, he has the least experience in using them. He does know how to kill Biotics due to the years he had spent fighting many of such powers, but never using them himself. Human Biotics are known to exert tremendous efforts in using Biotics in combat and Shepard in this case, even more so since his body was not originally that of a Biotic.

Thus you can bet that Shepard is going to be drained when he goes for higher versions of his Biotic abilities and the same could be said for his Techno-organic abilities. He can be powerful, but not at the level of say Samara, Miranda, Jacob, Thane, Wrex, and a few others, and if he tries to, it will tax him greatly. His body can indeed heal well but that will not make him invincible.

…

Someone asked me if I could have Batman be given a Combat Hardsuit with the Batman theme on it. And I have to admit that the whole thing was a very tempting idea. The idea of a Batman style suit of Mass Effect Armor was good and I just might do that if I get enough support on it, and for all you know, that tech might be included or will be the basis for the future Batman's own suit and that can be fun to cook up and do right. I might even design a suit for Superman as a more advanced form of the suit he would normally use to handle Kryptonite.

The possibilities there are pretty endless.

…

On another topic of discussion, someone asked if I can do the pairing as a harem bit for Shepard, and I will admit that it might be possible to pull off. How it can be done will still be up to me, but the potential is there and I am very interested to see how that might turn out. But I will not just get Shepard in with a lot of women without make the relationship he will have with each woman actually work. And I had mentioned that since you could have a romance in ME 2 with a character that does not affect your main romance, it is good to try when we can.

And I did state that Dylan did have a romance with Miranda and a near romance with Samara, something you can totally do in the game. So I do not have anything against trying something like that here in this story. So if I do decide to go for a harem bit for this story, please tell me who you would suggest in it and I'll see if I can make it happen.

…

Anyway, there we go with this story, not my best due to some problems that I need to deal with, along with Real Life issues. If there are errors please send me a PM to point them out, and I will fix them when I can. I will be updating this time, my Naruto stories, namely Dragon Champion, Dragon Ascendant, Rune Soldier as much as I can, along with my Fallout stories. After that, then I will be working on the rest once I rest well enough.

Bye!


	3. Rise of a hero

Mass Effect: Spectre

Disclaimer: I do not own anything related to DCAU and Bioware…

Chapter 2

Rise of a hero…

( ): Thoughts…

…

Author's Notes:

I should warn you all in advance that this is merely retelling the story of the whole Mass Effect Trilogy and all the relevant events as well. I have shorted it as best I could and if you all have played the games, then that should help move it along. I know I might get flak from this but it had to be done since we have to keep in mind that the DC heroes are not native there in this universe that Dylan and EDI left behind.

…

In the Normandy's War Room…

"Systems Alliance, what is that? I don't recall any such organization being known all over the world."

Dylan knew that the question asked by Batman was a pretty valid one and he decided to answer it.

"The Systems Alliance does not sound familiar to you because it's an organization that exists in MY reality, an alternate reality as it were. It was founded in the year 2149 in the Citadel Calendar."

The members of the newly formed League were surprised by that, however, Superman was quick to recover from the shock and spoke to them.

"That does not sound far fetched, a friend of mine when into a world similar to that one. Things there were pretty different until she helped do something about it."

Superman did not elaborate on the matter since in truth the friend in question was Lois who had landed in a world where she had died. And that had made that world's version of him side with Luthor and turn the world into something else entirely. So much so that people were all angry towards him and all that version of him had done. When she got back and told him about it, he was very much shocked by the implications, and had been one of the reasons he had personally stepped up his actions in keeping her safe.

Batman was in the loop to a certain extent and replied.

"That world is what we call a parallel reality and is not the same as an alternate reality Superman. There things happen very differently and history does not happen the way we know it."

EDI then spoke.

"You are very much correct Batman, to sum up our reality's differences, the first is that there are no costumed vigilantes, no Meta-humans, the Green Lantern Corps that Mr. Stewart is part of does not exist, Mars was not inhabited by J'onn's people, there is no mention of the Kryptonian race, or the Amazons. But there are alien races present and in there Humanity had become on the major galactic players as well."

The heroes took all of that in consideration and soon it was J'onn who spoke next.

"How is it that you have come here?"

Dylan sighed a bit and replied calmly at that question.

"That I feel is a question that should be answered at a much later date, anyway, all I can say for the moment is that I am a full human. But just not in the same way as most if not all regular humans are on Earth."

Batman was the next to speak, he felt that he should at the very least state that he had his doubts about the authenticity of their statements. Even with all hat he had seen thus far, the Dark Knight was not going to be sold on that easily.

"Be that as it may, there is still the matter of whether we can trust you or not, you did help us in fighting the Imperium and freeing Earth but what are you all really doing here? For all we know, you could be part of a secondary invasion."

That was something that both Dylan and EDI had expected, and Superman was also expecting such a thing from Batman. After all, the question of the origins of the two and their ship was still something that had to be answered, but it naturally was not well received by everyone in the newly formed League. The most affected by this announcement was none other than Diana herself as she spoke to Batman.

"That is a very harsh accusation! They helped us fight off the Imperium after all."

Batman looked at Diana and knew that this would happen, but he was not going to budge on the matter as it was an action of prudence and caution.

"I did not make it without basis, we have to be sure that they are truly sincere on being the trust worthy type."

Dylan nodded a bit and spoke to the gathered heroes.

"I figured you would say that Batman, I and EDI are not offended or anything since if the situations had been reversed, I'd be asking the same questions to you. But I assure you that what we told you and what we are about to tell you is the truth. Anyway, I suppose showing you the history of our galaxy is in order, namely where me and EDI came from."

EDI nodded and soon the heroes were allowed to see the holographic records that were made to highlight human history. The A.I was naturally the one to do the more serious explaining to the heroes and Shepard would be the one to deal with the rest of the situation that was going to be shown before them all.

"The history of humanity in your reality is very similar to your own though as we have stated, there were no beings like yourselves. We however established the first working lunar settlement on the moon in the year 2069 known as the Armstrong Outpost in honor of the Lunar Landing at least a hundred years prior. One year later, a billionaire named Victor Manswell, frustrated by the progress of space travel privately funds his own expedition into space."

That got the attention of the League, namely Batman as he had begun to analyze the cost and logistics involved for one man to actually plan such a feat. The technology that had to be developed, the people who had to be selected for such a mission, the personnel involved and also the sheer amount of resources that had to go into the effort of making the ship itself that could allow for travel beyond earth itself.

"Did he succeed?"

"Five years later, he and 300 hundred colonists, cryogenically frozen left Earth towards the Alpha Centauri System and were lost soon after. However, nearly a century later, the remains of the expedition were found and had been seen to be healthy and growing well enough."

John whistled at that and replied seriously as he had to give the people who were willing to take such a risk credit where credit was undeniably due.

"They had a lot of guts to do that."

EDI nodded and continued with her detailing of human history.

"By the year 2103, the European Space Agency established the first permanent colony on Mars known as the city of Lowell in Eos Chasma. Mars in our reality however had no life forms that were similar to J'onn's people and as such, we had no encounters with alien life at the time."

"So there was no sign of beings similar to my people?"

At Dylan's nod J'onn was saddened, but kept in mind that they came from another reality so it was entirely possible that their Mars had not been able to sustain life. Life-forms which would possibly evolved into his own people in this universe of his.

"By the years 2134 to 2143, Humanity expanded through the solar system, we established mining colonies on key planets and also gathered precious resources for expansion. One such resource was helium 3, which served to fuel many ships' reactors with the most common source being Saturn.. We also established the facility named Gagarin Station after the first man to be in space at the area of Pluto. It was on Mars on the year 2147 that trace amounts of the element known as Element Zero or E-zero was discovered, and a year afterwards we discovered a hidden observation post belonging to a very advanced and powerful alien race that was long gone known as the Protheans in the south polar region of Mars known as the Promethei Planum."

J'onn was intrigued by that as he recalled that his people had explored such a place in the past and found no such hidden cache. All the more reason for him to sense that they were indeed speaking the truth, that and the fact that his telepathy allowed him to sense no lie coming from Dylan Shepard. Batman naturally spoke to J'onn about this as he had already learned of the telepathic nature of the Last Martian.

"Is this the truth J'onn?"

"Yes it is, my people long before the invasion went to that part of our world and we found no such facility there from any other race."

Hawkgirl was next to comment in this as the holograms depicted the said facility that was now being studied by human science teams.

"Who were these Protheans?"

"They were a very advanced race, though complicated as we were going to learn eventually. Suffice to say, they were the ones who's technology became the basis for what we would eventually use as standard for the next centuries as it boosted our technology by at least two centuries. Their maps and information archives took time to translate but they did help us in a more detailed examination of the Sol system and any other outlying area. Eventually though, we learned as Mass Effect Fields, and developed Faster than Light travel. But the most significant find…at the time was the Mass Relay System."

Superman was surprised by that as he had never heard of Mass Effect fields before in his time in meeting scientists.

"What is this Mass Relay System anyway?"

The images changed as Shepard decided to take over as he had been told this as a child back in school.

"The Mass Relay System in simple terms is a network of massive orbital constructs which at the time we thought, and the whole galactic community at large thought, were left behind by the Protheans to allow them to literally go from one end of a system to the next. Usually there are two types of Mass Relays, with Primary Relays being the ones to connect Major systems to one another, while Secondary Relays being for more close transportation. These also allowed for interstellar communications via communications buoys. We found this out when we learned that Charon, the Ice moon of Pluto was actually holding a dormant Mass Relay we all dubbed as the Charon Relay. Once we freed it from the ice, which required us to blow up the ice moon, and activated it, Humanity's first colonists beyond system led by Jon Grissom left in newly built ships armed with Mass Effect technology."

The heroes watched the records of the expedition as Dylan continued.

"The expedition entered the Arcturus System which was 36 light years away and was connected to several other systems via Primary Mass Relays. When that happened, the governments of Earth realized that they needed to establish a joint body to handle the tasks of space exploration, colonization, research and development, and for warfare and defense. This naturally led to the founding of the Systems Alliance."

The heroes listened intently to this as the former Spectre continued with his explanations.

"At first the Alliance had it's hands full since not everyone on Earth was too sold on the idea of the Alliance being formed. Some had even tried to slash it's budget and support for one reason or another, and while I admit personally that the Alliance was not always perfect, it was at least willing to try and work for it. The next planet to be colonized by the newly formed Alliance was Terra Nova, and it became a vital part of the Alliance chain of supply and logistics due to the sheer amounts of resources there. We founded other worlds as well, namely the colony of Demeter and Eden Prime, and soon the Alliance needed to establish a defense force and base there to protect expanding territory, so they created Arcturus Station in the same place due to the strategic location of being near several Mass Relays."

"In the coming years we also began to have accidents with the use of Element Zero, which in hindsight was the start of humans developing Biotics. One of my long time friends and fellow Alliance soldier Kaiden Alenko was one of them, and so was future friend and fellow ally Jacob Taylor, both of whom you will never find no matter what any of you do. I was also born in the span of those years to former Alliance Marine Kenneth Shepard and Hannah Price, an Alliance trained nurse on the colony of Mindoir. But in the year 2157, it changed."

Superman looked on and was very curious about this as the images changed as he spoke to the man.

"What do you mean?"

Dylan looked at EDI who nodded as she explained,.

"Ever since Humanity uncovered the Prothean cache on Mars, Humanity knew eventually there would be an encounter with another race that used the technology. They even thought at the time we might encounter the Protheans themselves, which was a reason for the formation of the Systems Alliance. And they were right for on that year Commander Dylan spoke of, we encountered another race but it was a hostile encounter. A science team had been studying another relay when ships of a then unknown design came, the ship crews attempted a diplomatic solution but were fired upon. The race Humanity fought with were known as the Turians. This was known as the first Contact War by Humanity while to the Turians, it was the Relay 314 Incident. They had been given the authority to prevent the activation of any dormant relay by unknown races due to a war that happened with what Humanity would learn was the Citadel Council. They eventually fought their way to one of our colonies, Shanxi. They overtook the colony and the leader of the Human forces there, General Williams, was forced to surrender to stop the bombardment of the colony and it's people. This was enough to galvanize the Alliance as the Second Fleet under Admiral Kastanie Drescher attacked and forced the Turians off one month after the occupation. This would have led to galactic war as the Turian government, the Hierarchy began military preparations."

"The Citadel Councilors however managed to broker a peace deal and eventually the Alliance and in turn Humanity was allowed to join the Citadel community. The Citadel was known as the heart of the rest of the galactic community that Humanity was part of. And there were the big three races, the Turians, the Asari, and the Salarians, named that way since they were the races that helped form the Citadel with the two latter races being the senior races."

…

Batman decided to intercede in that part of the discussion as he was curious about Biotics.

"What exactly is Biotics? You used that before in the fights with the Imperium and while it resembled some things I have seen, it is different."

Dylan sighed a bit and replied as he knew that he would have to delve deep into his memories of the past concerning Biotics.

"Biotics basically is used to describe the way certain people in various races can manipulate dark energy and use them for a variety of fields, but for the most part in the Alliance military and the armed forces of the other, usually for combat and defense. However in humans only few are born with Biotic abilities or potential. That is usually due to accidental exposure to E-zero which happens to children who might suffer from complications and possibly die and they usually need biotic amplification implants or Biotic amps if you want to know. The potential power of a Biotic can vary, from low level to high level Biotics, and some races have a higher pool of biotic users than others. Plus they are seen differently by others in their races. In humans where I come from, the Alliance is the one who welcomes all Biotics with open arms, while others in the civilian and some religious sectors don't exactly hold them in high regard due to misconceptions and negative beliefs about Biotic Humans."

"You're a Biotic?"

"Not originally, I was never a Biotic at birth, but due to several unique circumstances I was given Biotic powers though it was when I was an adult already. It's not something I recommend for anyone, least of all myself since I usually left the Biotic work to…others in my old team who were Biotics."

Flash raised an eyebrow there beneath his mask and replied as he had seen what Dylan could do with his Biotic talents so he was not sure why Dylan said that he did not possess Biotic talents.

"What's so hard about being a Biotic?"

Dylan replied to that as well as he recalled what the difference was.

"I'll discuss that at a later time, suffice to say that since I was not born a natural Biotic and did not get the training or the needed time to adjust to the powers and the weak points that came with them, using Biotics is costly to me. That's why I limit my use of Biotics. Back to the story all right?"

The heroes nodded and the Spectre continued with the history lesson.

"Anyway back on the three races since they had a lot of leverage in the society. There are other races who were given embassies on the Citadel with the first being the Volus, then the Elcor, and a few others but the three races I mentioned are the major races."

…

The images changed to showcase the Turian race and the heroes took to getting in all the details of the race that had once been enemies of the Alliance. As the image of the Turians moved around in a rotation fashion, the images were soon replaced by the videos of how the Turians lived and performed in peace and wartime. J'onn was the next to comment about the Turians.

"They seem to have some sort of exoskeleton of bone."

"Yeah, their home world of Palaven happens to be a world that gets hit by radiation and heat a lot so their species have the evolution of bone plates to counter the radiation and warmth. Their talons are good for close combat but none of the bones serve as natural armor and the only way to tell the difference between a male and female Turian would be the length of the bone plates on the face. Their culture is more focused on public service and their government the Turian Hierarchy is shaped as a military structure government. Any changes made up top are soon accepted and adopted in the lower castes of their society."

"They might have evolved on a planet that is similar to Earth in some ways like the Asari, but apart from a former Citadel Race, the Quarians they are among the few dextro-acid based life forms which makes eating food normally eaten by levo-acid beings like us humans, the Asari, and the Salarians as well as most other races dangerous to them. On the best case scenario, the effect of a Turian eating food made by for a levo-acid being could give them stomach cramps and also a strong allergic reaction. On the worst case scenario, said allergic reaction could prove fatal and could lead to death. The reverse happens is a levo-acid being eats food meant for those with dextro-acids. They are a martial culture so warfare and public service is in their blood so to speak so many of their people are trained for self defense and their military believes in total war in where they devastate their enemies' military might to the point that opposing the Turians is considered madness."

"Their life spans are the same as a regular human and while Biotics is present in their race, the regular Turians do not trust it and have those of their people who were Biotic assigned to Cabals. They enjoy broad freedoms and their way of advancement is usually through merit, but they also happen to believe in public service and duty so while a Turian criminal might hide the truth that he killed someone, when confronted, they usually confess to it. And while they do what they can to reform their criminals they do not hesitate to place the offender in hard labor for the state if the offender is not willing to change."

"They also serve in many capacities and even those who are no longer able to serve in the front lines serve as support, logistics, and intelligence. The discipline they got was so good that the saying was that the only time a Turian showed his or her back when he or she was dead. Those among them with Biotic abilities are usually taken into units called Cabals since Biotics is not trusted that well by Turian regulars in the military. Plus they take their colonial markings seriously as a point of pride and the worst insult they can call a fellow Turian is bare-faced?"

John was curious at that as he could tell that this was one serious insult judging by the way it was said.

'What does bare faced mean anyway?"

"Any Turian with no colonial markings is called bare faced and it is used on politicians as well. It means that they cannot be trusted and are to always be watched by others."

"The Turians were brought into the Council during the Krogan Rebellions and after they were done with the fighting, they were given the duty as being the military and security arm of the Citadel once held by the Krogans. Their fleets were usually deployed for patrol and defense work for every bit of Citadel space. And naturally they were the first race of aliens met by the Alliance, and the results of the Battle of Shanxi painted the Turians in a bad light in humanity's eyes. Same went for the Turians as well though and that was why we had cold relations for a time. But while that was the case, there were eventually attempts on both sides to ease tensions. The first Normandy was build by Turian and Human engineers, technicians, and designers after all, and one of my closest friends was a Turian from the Citadel's own defense force known as Citadel Security or C-Sec back in the day."

Batman spoke next to that.

"Who was that?"

Dylan grinned as he brought the image up of his old Turian partner in crime as it were, Garrus Vakarian.

"This is Garrus Vakarian, formerly Detective of the Citadel Security, he was a rebel from the regular Turians but he was a gifted Tech user and a soldier. He also happened to be one of the best snipers I worked with and I worked with a LOT of good people regardless of their past history and personal baggage. I met him when I was investigating an attack on Eden Prime, and he was the one leading the investigation. That is a matter I can discuss later, but suffice to say, Garrus and I went through a lot together and we became very good friends as a result of it. We even had a private joke that if anything went sideways on an operation, and we wind up in the bar up there in heaven, one of us was buying the rounds. Or if either of us when their ahead of the other then he was going to watch each other's back."

Diana could see that Dylan had a warm smile at the memory of his long time friend and she spoke to him.

"You and him must have really worked well for a long time in battles to have such trust with one another."

Dylan nodded and replied to that.

"Yeah we were not just friends but you could say master and student with me as the master. When we met and he quit C-Sec, I was the guy he talked to about how to do things when not in C-Sec, nearly convinced him to be a Spectre who followed the law instead of breaking it, he would have made a hell of a Spectre too. He and I worked well together for a long time. I doubt I will be seeing him again though."

"He…"

"Nope, Garrus is a tough old Turian, he got hit by the wrong end of a gunship and came back about all right so I doubt he's dead. Plus there were others who I respected in my life back in my reality. Some Turians I disliked a great deal for very good reasons but all in all, Turians are a mix of saints and sinners."

Dylan then decided to reveal the next race, the Asari and he could already picture the reactions of the League, especially one speedster in mind.

And he was not disappointed as he and EDI revealed the next race of the Citadel.

…

Flash could not help but whistle in appreciation as he looked at the hologram of an Asari and the same could be said for the other League members as Batman spoke.

"They look almost human like despite the blue skin and the flesh like tendrils on their heads. Have you ever seen them before in your travels in space Superman?"

The Kryptonian could not help but shake his head and replied to the question directed to him by Batman.

"No, I don't travel as much as I normally would in space but I have not seen or heard of these Asari, what exactly are they Dylan?"

Dylan decided to give the short version since even though he had worked with Asari many times before, Liara and Samar being the most obvious reasons for his knowledge, he kept in mind that none of his companions on the Normandy have met them.

"Asari are the natives of Thessia which is a planet that has the same atmosphere as that of Earth, which is why they have the same amino acids as humans. And they happen to be one of the most long lived races in my world, their only equals in terms of life span are Krogan. They were one of the founding races of the Citadel and happened to hold a number of key positions in the Citadel Council and also have colonies both Citadel owned and independent. Their exact lifespan is at least a thousand years and they also happen to be natural Biotics due to their unique nervous system.. They are usually recognized as leaders economics, science, diplomacy, and statecraft due to their life spans as well though they are not adverse to the areas of military work and also less than reputable ventures."

Hawkgirl and the others looked at the Asari and it was here that the Thanagarian spoke to the Spectre.

"How come there seem to be images only of female Asari? Don't tell me that they don't have men in their race."

Dylan actually grinned on this one since he knew that the next comment was going to raise eyebrows.

"There is something that is also unique about them as well and will explain the reasons why there are no men among the Asari. They are the only known race of being in my native universe that are mono-gendered."

John was quick to get a clue what that meant and was surprised by that.

"What a minute…you mean to say that all of them are female?"

"Yep, you could say that they are the non human equivalent of Diana's people, the Amazons who do not welcome men in their society. The difference there is that Asari are considered attractive to both men and women of any race back in my reality, and they are more than welcoming of those of the gender of any race."

J'onn and the others were stunned silent but Flash was gob-smacked to say the least until the Martian spoke.

"How is it then that they were able to grow to having colonies if there is only one gender in their whole race?"

"Asari have the ability to meld their nervous system to that of their partners, this allows the two to literally become one being and this allows the Asari to mentally link with her partner. This allows them to scan the DNA of their partners and use that as a blue print for the child that they would have. This ability uses the DNA map to randomize the process of procreation for an Asari and the child is always an Asari. Thus it means that an Asari can have a child with a member of another of any gender, and even their own as well. But they also happen to be physically and biologically similar to human females so the way a regular human woman is aroused works in the same way on a female Asari, though it's only through the melding process that they can have children with them being willing along with their partners."

That stunned the heroes even more as they tried to wrap their minds around the idea of an all female race of human like beings. The men in the group were impressed by the Asari as they looked at some of the images which included singers, sculptors, artists, politicians, and more. It was Flash who spoke the most about what he had just learned.

"So you're saying that they can reproduce with either men or women of any race? Damn…a whole race of drop dead gorgeous human like alien women…sounds like my kind of people!"

Flash grinned as his thoughts began to go wild on him, ignoring the fact that both Diana and Shaeyra were not too pleased by his statement. Dylan gave a slight chuckle and sighed a bit to get their attention.

"Yeah, but there some things you might want to listen to first before you start getting green thoughts in your head about them Flash. First off, while they are comfortable with their attractiveness to other beings and at times revel in it, Asari are not that simple to understand. Due to their ability of procreation and said sensuality, most of them are labeled as promiscuous, which is merely wishful thinking on the part of most guys I know of from any race. Because they can live up to the thousand years, Asari know that with the exception of Krogan, they would outlive other races, especially those who they take as their bondmates, and that is something that they do not like a great deal. So they take the long view of a relationship with their bondmates who do not live as long as they do and treasure every moment of their lives with their partners because in the end, both they and their daughter Asari will be the left afterwards when their bondmate dies. Therefore they take motherhood quite seriously though there are some exceptions."

"And there's the fact that Asari can be ruthless, cold hearted, and criminal like any other race as well, so don't be surprised if some of the toughest criminal leaders happened to be Asari. I know of one named Aria who controlled Omega, the biggest cesspit of crime and villainy in the galaxy where I came from. I worked with her on a few occasions and all I can say is that she is NOT someone you want to try getting fresh with. Plus there's the fact that they also happen to be some of the finest soldiers in the galaxy."

Superman spoke to that.

'What exactly do you mean by that?"

"Asari have their own military forces and they are trained to be able to fight in situations that require fluidity, flexibility, and lightning fast action. They can't take on a firestorm as Krogan or Turians, they don't have the same level of adaptability of humans, or the covert skill of the Salarians, but they counter with guerilla tactics, firepower, Biotics, and speed. They do wear heavy armor on occasion but a vast majority of Asari Huntresses and Commandos prefer to be fitted with light gear and specially customized weapons and at times use cybernetics to handle more dangerous weapons for specific purposes. Due to their thousand year life span, all Asari can be trained in every aspect of warfare to a razor's edge, and so once an Asari leaves their training, they literally know a thousand and one ways to kill with weapons or bare hands, as well as their Biotics. In fact, Biotics is a prerequisite to being a Huntress or a Commando and any Asari who cannot in any way shape or form use Biotics though rare are barred from military service."

Dylan could not help but grin a bit as he recalled what he had read about Asari military doctrine and finished it off.

"The best way to describe the Asari military is that they are akin to an army of ninja and are the finest warriors in the galaxy, though there are not that many of them. So I sincerely recommend that you don't ever take them lightly even if there are none of them here."

He then looked at Flash who was doing a very good imitation of a fish out of water. He laughed a bit and sobered up a moment or so later as he continued.

"There is also something you should know about Asari, even though they can also meld with other Asari to reproduce, that is not exactly welcomed and there is a stigma involved with Asari melding with other Asari and having an Asari as a bondmate."

Diana was curious about that and made her curiosity obvious.

"Why would such a thing be unwelcomed? Surely they had only each other to have children with prior to being part of this Council."

"They did, but Asari are asked to mate with other races in order to bring new knowledge diversity and more to their people. When an Asari is bonded with another Asari it is commonly thought that they gain nothing at all and as such, the union produces no new diversity in the race as a whole. They do accept the fact that love is a primal factor there, but it is not always welcomed. The term pureblood for us might be a good or bad thing depending on how it is used, but if uttered towards any Asari, it is a great insult to them. And there is a biological reason as well, something I learned when I worked with Asari."

…

Batman spoke next.

"What's this reason?"

"I'm not entirely sure that I had it right, but it was shown that Asari who are born between Asari bondmates are at risk of developing a mutation in their DNA that alters there nervous system, even more so when they meld with another being. Usually the Asari's melding process is painless and not dangerous, but those who are pureblood Asari who develop the mutation actually violently overload the nervous system of their partner and kill them afterwards by literally frying the nervous system of the other being. These now considered sterile mutant Asari are called Ardet-Yakshi which means 'Demon of the Night Winds'. They were once worshipped in fear by old Asari generations as Goddesses of destruction until the Asari advanced into space."

"There are usually two options for Asari who are discovered with the mutations. The first option they are to live in a monastery in their home world, cut off from all contact with family and the outside world, and forbidden to leave it until penalty of death. They however process a large number of unique and priceless artifacts and are provided food and lodging as well as anything to keep them content. The other is to run and be hunted down by the specialist unit of Asari society known as the Justicars."

John and the others were not too sure how to react to such things until J'onn spoke.

"How dangerous can these…Ardet-Yakshi become? And who are these Justicars you spoke of."

Dylan sighed a bit and replied.

"Ardet-Yakshi have the ability to release powerful pheromones, they also can mentally influence anyone they hunt unless those people are of exceptional mental conviction, and when they do, they meld with their mate/victim. But unlike the regular way Asari meld, their form of melding is fatal. They overwhelm the partner's nervous system, causing massive neural damage and literally burn them out. This not only kills the partner, but also acts as a narcotic that fuels the desire of the Ardet-Yakshi for more and it also serves to increase their overall Biotic powers. In simple terms, they are the ultimate definition of the term 'black widow.'"

That scared the heroes a bit at the thought of such women roaming around. Despite being a ladies man, at least in his mind, Flash was not in the mood to be in the hands of such a woman. Batman himself could not help feel that considering what he had just heard, these Ardet-Yakshi were similar to Poison Ivy but he recalled what was mentioned about the group known as a Justicars.

"Who are the Justicars you mentioned before?"

"Justicars are a special warrior order of Asari who are committed to a black and white view of Justice. The life of a Justicar is harsh and demanding and they have be ones who are willing to forsake everything for the Code. That includes family, property, history and a few others, they are not forbidden to have relationships as far as I know of, but there are those of them who follow the Code. Justicars are kind of the Asari equivalent of humanity's Samurai or Knights Templar Order but are all female, they can either being the subtle kind or the kind that just kicks the wall down and go in guns and Biotics blazing. In Asari space, they are feared and respected by their people and if they kill someone, then no one questions them for they all know the dedication of the Justicars to justice and the ones they killed are criminals. Naturally though Asari get rather nervous when Justicars get out into alien space since even if they know Justicars go after criminals, they might kill non Asari criminals that could be seen as a galactic incident."

"Thankfully they do have some edicts that forbid them to do so, but that usually lasts for a day or so.

Flash gulped at that and Shaeyra spoke next.

"Harsh…but I can understand the way it works."

Diana nodded as well as she could understand to some degree the way the Justicars operated, but she spoke next as she was still curious how Justicars tied in with these Ardet-Yakshi.

"How do the Justicars tie in with these Ardet-Yakshi?"

Dylan explained that since Ardet-Yakshi killed all their mates while growing more powerful and hungry at the same time, they were a deadly threat and had to be killed. The dangers they pose naturally meant that only the most powerful Asari could hunt them and that meant only the Justicars could. Other Asari know to be careful if the Ardet-Yakshi were around and try to steer clear of them.

He then revealed the images of the Asari that he had a good relationship with. The first was naturally Liara who had been one of his long time friends. Truth be told he found her very attractive if shy and rather unused to being around humans. Had he not been in a relationship with Ash prior to their meeting, he would have courted her as Liara was at heart a good person, even after all she had done two years after he was legally killed, he still respected and admired her for what she had accomplished in her own fight against the Reapers.

Next was Samara and he could not help but smile a bit at how he and Samara had fought together on missions and how she had shown a powerful side to the Asari. She might not have approved of some of his methods but he always made sure to explain himself and also do those things only as a last resort. That was why they eventually became good friends, and possibly could have been more. He was not blind to the fact that despite her calm and serene appearance, Samara was quite attractive even at her age and they almost did come close to it though it never got too far due to their positions in the war.

Once that was over and Flash was soon convinced to roll up his tongue, Dylan moved next to the Salarians.

…

The heroes listened to what he knew of the Salarians, the next race that was met by the Systems Alliance when they joined the galactic community.

Superman took to account what they looked like and then recalled those old alien films he saw back in Smallville growing up and made that clear when he was able to see the images.

"They look like those old style aliens one see's in movies."

Dylan nodded in agreement as he also gave them something of the short version.

"The Salarians were the second race to be part of the Citadel and since they were more into intelligence gathering, espionage and covert tactics, one could say that they were the intelligence gathering arm of the Citadel, along with being the best scientists apart from the Asari. They might not be as imposing as the Turians in physical appearance, but they are hardly cowards and are very capable of defending themselves in battle. Some can be cold and ruthless as well when they have to be so it does not bother most people to see Salarians who are criminals or mercenaries. They have a military arm known as the STG or the Special Tasks Group, think of them as a combination of spies, assassins, saboteurs and the like. They and a number of Asari Huntresses and Commandoes eventually formed into the core of the Spectres that I was soon going to be part of. They follow the belief to strike hard and fast long before a conflict even had a chance to starting up."

"Like Asari and Humans, they also happen to be levo-acid based beings so what we eat and rink, they can eat and drink at the very same time. They try eating food eaten by Quarians and Turians, then it's either a serious allergic reaction or death. And those who have Biotics in their race are usually sent into the intelligence services and not wasted on the frontlines since among the three major races, Salarians don't have a lot of Biotically gifted members. They make up for with their skills in technology and their willingness to use any tactics to win a fight long before the other side start shooting along with their intelligence gathering abilities."

"The only problem they have is their metabolism, they happen to be highly active beings and also have very acute memories. This makes them very capable scientists in their own right as well as being able to handle the effects of drugs and alcohol better than some other beings though not by much. The downside is that they can live only up to at least four decades, after that, they die."

The heroes of the League shook their heads at that and Hawkgirl spoke next to Dylan.

"What kind of leadership do their people have?"

"Their race's leaders are called Dalatress and are usually female so their society is matriarchal in nature so that is why it's mostly the male Salarians who are seen more often than most. All the females in the Salarian races have the political power and it's very rare for a male Salarian to be politically powerful in their society though there are some exceptions from time to time since their Councilor was a male Salarian. That's why when it's time for a marriage to take place, it's more for political alliances and support than anything else."

"You worked with them before?"

"Pretty much, most people respect the Salarians for their skills and abilities but are also wary of them due to their penchant for gathering information legitimately or otherwise. And not everyone likes them due to them being the ones who uplifted the Krogan prior to the Rebellions, and then made the genophage. And you can bet safely that the Krogan absolutely despise them for the same thing. I worked with one Salarian who was former STG and a real speed demon of a speaker and that was none other than Dr. Mordin Solus."

He soon revealed his fellow crew member Mordin and gave them a brief idea of who the Salarian was on his crew. Naturally that included the fact that despite a doctor and scientist, Mordin was former STG and therefore was skilled in warfare and had killed before. The most telling facts he presented of that fact were the times he had taken out those Blue Suns mercs, and the time he had killed a Krogan with a pitchfork in the face. The League were not too comfortable with that idea until they could not help but smirk a bit when they saw Mordin make his own rendition of Gilbert and Sullivan which was his version of the Salarian scientist.

"Mordin could be easily called a hamster on coffee and while he spoke like a machine gun, he was very smart and very capable. He carried his own level of guilt though as he was the one who created the Genophage."

That got the attention of the heroes and Diana spoke next.

"He created that thing that affected the Krogan?"

"Yes, and while he was aware that it was the only option at the time, he still did not like the results of his work. He could be cold and ruthless when the need comes to it, but he always kept his own set of ethics and morals, stuck to them and always did what he felt was needed to do the things to help save life. He was always a contradiction but in the end…well, that I will explain later."

Dylan wrapped it up by explaining of the other races, those who were aligned with the Citadel and those who were residing away from the authority of the Council. These naturally included the Drell, the Hanar, the Batarians, the Vorcha, the re-introduced Rachni, the Quarians, the Elcor, the Volus, and the Krogan. He took the time to answer the questions about each race and introduced the ones he worked with.

This naturally included Tali the plucky and skilled Quarian engineer and mechanist he worked with for years. Wrex who was a long time friend and trusted ally of his despite the time they had nearly shot each other, Grunt, the tank bred Krogan who he helped become a true Krogan and how he became Grunt's Battlemaster after the Rite that he and Grunt took part in when Wrex was leader. Thane Krios, the repentant Drell Assassin who he helped reconnect with his son Kolyat and who died saving the Salarian Councilor. Kasumi Goto, the perky yet skilled and talented thief who became soon a key ally and friend of his in the wars to come and had been a source of information during the war alongside Liara. Zaeed, the battle hardened Mercenary who was once a moral foe of his but became someone he could count on when the chips were really down. Legion, the Geth Infiltrator who became an ally and had given up itself to save it's people and make them self-aware and helped bridge the gap between his people and their creators the Quarians. And Javik, the last of the Protheans who he convinced to never give up hope and inspired to live once more even as the last of the Protheans.

Once he was done, he could tell and so could EDI that what they had presented to the League was a lot to take in. He did not mind and allowed them to take it all in until Batman spoke to him and him in particular.

"How did you get involved in this?"

…

As Shepard began to explain his past to the heroes, they were listening carefully while J'onn worked to confirm just what was the truth and not as images personally taken from Dylan's memories were used thanks to some technology on the somewhat sentient Normandy.

Dylan did not mind since he did not have to hide things from them since he was in a new reality and he had already learned that none of the things he knew of were here. When he told them that he had been born into a colony known as Mindoir and his family were actually farmers, Clark was somewhat intrigued by that revelation as he had lived most of his life in the farm.

"You were a farmer?'

Dylan smiled a bit and replied to the question by the Kryptonian.

"I was, I grew up in the farm and helped my family harvest crops before I went to high school every day. My father Kenneth was a former Alliance Marine who retired from the service and took up being a farmer, and my mother Hannah was a doctor who was the head of our colony's clinic. My father and I used to grow corn and wheat in the months when they were in season, along with soy beans, and oats. Apart from those we also grew vegetables and raised chickens and turkey, and we would hire hands occasionally during harvest time."

"I was not the only child in the family; I had three siblings, my younger brother Kyle who was a year younger than I was, and my two sisters Sheila and Marianne. Sheila was a year younger than Kyle, and Marianne was ten. We were a great family then, sure a few fights here and there, but we were a solid family and we had good times as well."

The heroes could not help but see that Dylan was smiling as he recalled the happier times of his younger days, and J'onn smiled as he too could see that the memories. And it was here that John decided to ask the next question that was on their minds.

"So why did you join the military?"

That made Dylan stop for a second and close his eyes as a wave of memories hit him, memories that he had hoped not to remembers. And the way he looked at that instant was not lost to the heroes and they quickly realized that this was a sore subject. But the Spectre was serious about telling the heroes the truth as he looked at them all.

"I joined the Alliance because Mindoir was attacked by slavers from the Terminus Systems."

That shocked the League as Diana spoke.

"Slavers? You mean to say that such an abhorrent practice is still being done even in such an advanced society?"

"Yeah, and naturally the Slavers come in all forms, Asari, Turians, Salarians, and even Humans, but the most open slavers are the Batarians. To them, it is their cultural and societal rights to take slaves, and do whatever they want with them. Humans get the worst of it since they usually implant control chips into them without anesthetic. They enslave anyone they feel is worth taking, and you can guess what they do with…well women of any race Princess Diana."

The dark haired beauty swore in Greek at this until she calmed down as Batman spoke.

"What happened?"

He began to explain just what happened that day, he recalled going back home after getting dismissed from school when the warning klaxons sounded all over the colony. He and his friends barely had time to head to a safe spot when shuttles came and out came the slavers. He recalled vividly how the sounds of screaming soon erupted as the civilians were caught off guard by the slavers. He thought back on the screams and the sights of people trying to escape the attack.

He then spoke of how he found his home under attack as his parents tried to fight to protect their home from the slavers. He tried to rush in to help his family but it was too late as his home was destroyed by a heavy weapon. No doubt the slavers had enough of his father's defiance and that of his mother and decided to kill his parents.

He told them of how he managed to reach his wounded father who told him to get his sisters and brother out while he fought on. He did so and tried to find his mother, only to find her dead as she had shielded his brother. He had no choice but to lift his dead parent off his sibling and tried to get him away. He found his sisters and they all soon ran away. He kept running as his father shouted to him to run. The last he saw was his father dropping dead as the slavers came in and shot him as he and his siblings tried to escape. They had managed to reach the outskirts but they were suddenly forced to hit the dirt as an explosion nearby hit them. He and his siblings were knocked out and it felt like he was dead. He looked up after what felt like forever and saw that his…siblings were dead and he had no choice but to run as the slavers began to look for him.

The heroes looked at him in shock as he quietly spoke on how he eventually had lived outside of his home for a week, avoiding the slavers who had dug in to fight Alliance forces and take their slaves who were still alive until he was found by an Alliance Marine patrol as he soon passed out, still covered in the blood of his entire family and not drinking or eating for that frame of time.

Dylan then gave a serious look in his face as he remembered the aftermath of the attack and what he had done as well.

"After I recovered enough to get back to my home, I went to where the bodies of the victims were now being buried, a makeshift graveyard. I looked for my family's gravestones and when I found them, I felt utterly sick as I knew that I was the last of my family. It…took a lot of effort for me to look at the gravestones of my parents, my little brother, and my little sisters but I did. I made a vow that day; I told them that I was going to enlist in the Alliance Marines. I was going to train and make sure that what happened to them and everyone who died that day was not going to happen again to anyone ever again."

"After I did so, I decided to go to my old home and take what I could find and salvage. I also decided to use whatever credits my parents had left to go to Arcturus Station. I enlisted there and began to train into becoming a Marine. It was hard and the training was harsh but I was able to get through it for several years, and after I got high marks in training, I was seen by my future mentor David Anderson, an N7 Marine Graduate as well as one of the best in the Alliance and he sponsored me. And I made it into the N7 Ranks, and passed with high marks there as well as a combat specialist."

"N7?"

Dylan explained that aspect and it was John who summarized the meaning.

"So essentially you were the future equivalent of the Marine Force Recon and Scout Sniper?"

"More or less though we did receive cross training in other fields when it was needed, I was on the city of Elysium after graduation and on shore leave when the Blitz happened. The Blitz was a sudden and serious attack perpetrated by a criminal warlord named Elias Haliant, a Turian who wanted to unite all the Terminus crime rings under his banner. And to do what he led the attack which was partially confirmed to have been supported by the Batarian Homogony. I and a handful of fellow N7 graduates and Marines rallied what support we could from the local security forces and civilian volunteers and fought back for days to hope that Alliance reinforcements could arrive."

Dylan thought back of that time and recalled the intense fighting that happened and how he had heard of a serious breach in the lines. If that breach was not closed, then their defenses would break. He told them about how it happened and how he had been the only one close enough to get there and hold the line. He told them about how he moved in and used everything he could even salvaging the weapons and supplies of his fellow humans who were either dead or unable to fight.

"I held there for an entire day, plugging that gap alone while the others held the other areas. If that gap had not been held, then everyone would have been overrun from the rear. It was like Mindoir all over again…only thins time, I was trained and ready to fight back. I looked at the people who had died and those who were still fighting and for a moment, I was back home among the ruins of my home and the people I called friends and my family. I swore that I was not going to let the Batarians or any of their flunkies get any closer after that."

Superman and the others were silent as the memories were seen by them in Dylan's face, his eyes were staring hard into the table before him and when all of them turned to J'onn, the alien looked at each of them and nodded. That told them that what Dylan said about his time in the Blitz was true. The Kryptonian then decided to speak once more.

"What happened?"

"We held the city for another half day until Alliance reinforcements came and chased off the Terminus forces. I helped with gathering the wounded for med-evac and buried those who did not make it. After the battle records were played out, I was promoted to Commander and given the Star of Terra. You could say that it was equivalent to the Congressional Medal of Honor, that's why I was called the Hero of Elysium and the Blitz."

Dylan smiled a bit sadly and replied.

"I knew it was an honor, but I did not bother with that, I was doing two things that day, my duty as an Alliance Marine, and fulfilling my promise to my family and my friends to never let what happened to them happen to anyone else. I couldn't save everyone, but I made sure that those I could save would be alive."

Diana was next to speak.

"You helped hold off a tide of enemy soldiers by yourself and for an entire day? You truly must have been a great hero to your people and fellow soldiers then."

Dylan nodded a bit.

"Yeah, I guess you could call it that. Anyway, after some time we had a mission to take the first Normandy out for a shake down run. But I already knew that something was up. We had a fully staffed crew, my old mentor was onboard, and we had a Spectre onboard, a Turian named Nihlus. He was not a bad sort of person for a Turian and he told me later that we were actually retrieving a Prothean beacon unearthed by a survey team on Eden Prime. And also I was to be made a Spectre, the first Human Spectre and this was my evaluation mission."

"But it all went down south the very second we entered the system."

…

Dylan began to talk once more about the events that happened on Eden Prime when he and his team were getting ready to retrieve that beacon, alongside Spectre Nihlus. He was not going to sugar coat what he saw since there was no reason to do so either. He began on how they moved through the ruined landscape Jenkins' home and how the young Marine had been cut down and how they eventually fought their way to meet Ashley and make their way to the beacon. There he explained how he saw Sovereign for the first time, but was not aware of the exact nature or significance of the living ship.

He spoke of the time he and the others found Nihlus dead and what they learned of Saren and his alliance with the Geth. He mentioned how they fought their way to the beacon while also disarming the weapons that Saren's Geth left behind to destroy the colony. Dylan spoke about the moments that allowed him to be touched by the beacon after saving Ashley from it and had the data downloaded into his mind.

The story for the League moved to how he and Anderson spoke of what happened and how he bonded with his crew as well as Ash. He learned of Saren's hatred for humans and how they had to get the Council on their side to find out what was Saren gunning for from the beacon , even if that would prove to be a dangerous and low reward gamble. Saren was one of the most decorated Spectres and as such, it was going to be hard to gather the evidence needed to have him revoked of his Spectre status and allow him to be prosecuted for the attack on Eden Prime. This also led him to meeting his future partner and long time friend Garrus.

Even when the evidence was not enough it was clear to the League that Saren had a great deal of anger and resentment towards humans. And they saw that he focused his ire the most on Anderson and Shepard with the Turian showing his sneer towards them as if convinced that they could not touch him, even for the murder of his former student Nihlus. After that they soon watched as he gathered what he could to prove the truth to the Council, and in turn he managed to get the aid of two new allies who he would be close to. The Krogan Battlemaster Mercenary Urdnot Wrex, and the Quarian Machinist Tali who would soon be his closest allies in the war to come even if none of them knew it.

Dylan spoke of how he eventually was given the rank of Spectre after revealing Saren's involvement and also that of Matriarch Benezia and how he was given command of the Normandy after Anderson stepped down. He told them of the mission that got him the support of Liara herself as they came to rescue her from the Geth and Saren's mercenary army and how the images of the beacon told him of the Reapers. A hyper advanced machine race that helped destroy the Protheans and vanished afterwards.

Many would doubt the Reapers, but he and his crew would not as they traveled from world to world dealing with many situations that came up that could not be avoided. Or those which could help defeat any of Saren's schemes. He also spoke of his saving the colony of Terra Nova from the Batarian extremists and how he let them leave after saving the station for reasons that he did not understand until much later on. He explained how he came to Feros and dealt with not just the Geth, but the machinations of Exogeni concerning the Thorian and how he made Jeong pay by killing him for his actions. He and his team saved the colonists without harming them and eventually facing the Thorian and freeing the Asari who was once part of the same group that followed Liara's mother under the thing's command. There he gained more of the Prothean cipher and spared the freed Asari Shiala.

There were also matters he had to deal with for his crew, helping Kaidan with his past as a member of BAaT, Garrus' one unsolved case and convincing him to not resort to shortcuts when one had to uphold the law, recovering vital data and giving a copy of it to Tali after facing off many Geth bases and staging areas for her people, and helping Wrex recover his family's armor even though the Krogan saw little need for it. And of course finally meeting Cerberus as well and the many horrific experiments they had been doing while all this was going about in the rest of the galaxy. That set the stage for him to work with them in the future as well as his dealings with the Shadow Broker.

All of this helped in the end as they soon dealt with the matter of Noveria, there they discovered the resurrected Rachni, dealt with corporate politics and backstabbing, and facing Benezia herself. The battle had been a painful one for Liara as she and Shepard tried to stop Benezia only for Benezia to reveal the extent of the power of the ship Saren had. The ship that corrupted her and those who followed her and made her commit horrors as she wailed in the prison in her own mind. She was briefly herself and gave them what data she could but could not say anything else as she was taken once more by the indoctrination that corrupted her. They were sadly forced to slay her and she spoke on last time to her daughter before he and the others decided to free the Queen. A move that naturally was not well appreciated by others in the team at first but he was not going to doom a whole race even one with such a bloody past as the Rachni.

That action was also surprising to the League and Dylan merely replied.

"The actions of the past can scar the present and mar the future…but what you do in the present MAKES the future. And what I did was going to change things."

And soon the battle moved to Vrmire itself, and here as he recalled the events there, he told them of the true extent of the threat posed by Saren, and the true master of the play…Sovereign, a Reaper itself. The vanguard of the rest of it's kind, and here through the data he had, Dylan revealed to them the dangers of indoctrination on those that Sovereign caught in it's web. It was also here that they learned of the cure of the genophage and how he and Wrex nearly killed one another, until he convinced the Krogan to trust him and to now allow Saren to use his people as slaves…just as the Council had done so long ago. But it was also here that they learned that despite his personal desire to help her, Dylan was forced to abandon Ashley as she had been the one to secure the makeshift bomb that he and the Salarian STG team leader Kirrahe as he and the others managed to cause enough damage to Saren's operations.

The heroes looked at Dylan who was silent as the memories of what happened came, namely the fact that he had made the choice to leave the woman he was in love with to death. He looked at them sadly and replied as he could see the questions that were aimed at him at this very moment by them.

"It was not something I wanted to do, and every day afterwards I asked if I could have saved her, but…I knew that I had to make a choice, a choice that haunted me ever since. To save the woman I loved and let my friend and fellow soldier Kaidan die as well as a team of good soldiers die, or to save Kaidan and Captain Kirrahe as well as his men and let Ashley die protecting the one weapon that could end the threat of Saren's cure for the genophage which could allow him to have an army of Krogan along with Geth. I apologized to her for the choice I had made, and she told me that she was not angry and was willing to do her part and I felt that she did it redeem the name of her family ever since her grandfather's actions on Shanxi. She was honored afterwards but it never made the pain of my choice go away from me."

They saw the pain in his eyes at that moment and decided to not ask any further, Batman could tell that this was a very painful thing for Dylan. And it reminded him of the time the first love of his life, Andrea left him behind to hide with her father from the mob and how he felt when he learned that she had become a vigilante after the murder of her father.

They listened as he told them of the time he had managed to get through to Saren before they were forced to leave the planet as the bomb detonated. Afterwards they learned the location of the Mu Relay and where it would go, the planet Ilos which was deep in the Terminus Systems. They were not the least bit pleased how Udina backstabbed Shepard and his crew by having them locked down and no longer able to move to stop Saren. And they could not help but be shocked at the actions of the Council as they were not even taking the situation of the Reaper Sovereign.

Dylan told them of how Anderson had willingly risked his life and career to help them escape and get to Ilos, and afterwards, how he sent a personal letter to Ashley's family on the Alliance colony of Amaterasu. He told them how Ashley had shown herself ever since the battle of Eden Prime, how she and him worked together ever since and what they had done to fight Saren and his army of Geth and mercenaries. He promised them that in honor of her and her sacrifice on Vrmire to prevent Saren from having an army of Krogan slaves at his command, he would personally see that the Williams name be given a clean slate and that Ash would be given the proper honors she deserved for all her actions.

He told them of the battles that happened once they came to Ilos and their meeting with Vigil and their mad rush into the Conduit to the Citadel itself which was now under attack by Sovereign and the Geth. The deaths of so many were seen through the records and what Dylan had told them thus far with J'onn confirming to the heroes that what Dylan told them was the truth and he was not lying to them. Dylan finally spoke of his last confrontation with Saren, on how he finally convinced Saren of the truth of what he had done, and how the Turian, with his last shred of his living self, shot him and said thank you for lifting the veil that hid the truth from him.

The battle however was far from over for Shepard and his crew helped open the Relays to bring Alliance reinforcements to save the Council and battle Sovereign, which led to several ships of the Alliance fleet being lost in the process of saving the Destiny Ascension. And then the battle as Sovereign took over Saren's lifeless corpse and the battle began again. The intense battles with the now fully reborn Saren were truly shocking for the heroes as the fate of all life hanged in the outcome of it all. They saw Dylan finally manage to strike down the reborn Saren with the aid of Garrus, Wrex and Kaidan and how the battle ended with a painful victory.

Superman was silent for the most part and soon spoke to Dylan.

"That's quite the life you led ever since leaving home, I doubt anyone could say otherwise."

Dylan spoke next with a smile, a sad smile.

"It was not over yet though, this was just the tip of the proverbial iceberg."

Hawkgirl spoke next.

"What do you mean?"

"Months after the Battle of the Citadel, we got word of ships, ships used by humans suddenly going dark near the Terminus borders. We were sent to find out what went wrong. Something went wrong all right."

…

As they watched the destruction of the first Normandy through the records EDI had gained after Cerberus had gotten the files, Flash turned to Dylan and asked the question that was in the minds of the others after they saw him save Joker and suddenly get blasted out into space as his ship fell apart from the attack of the unknown alien vessel that attacked them.

"How did you survive?"

Dylan gave a sad look and replied.

"I didn't…I died."

THAT got the rest of the League looking at him and the reaction was understandable as they were not sure just why was it that he was there before them. If he was indeed killed then how did it happen? There was no such thing as magic so magical resuscitation was out of the question, and meant that only technology could have worked. But they were still trying to deny it and Superman spoke next.

"How can that be?"

"Superman, I was just thrown out from the burning and exploding ruins of a ship that I worked on for nearly a year, my suit was damaged and it was losing both air and pressure while I was over an ice ball of a planet. I got dragged into the gravity well and the only thing that could barely qualify as protection for me was my hard-suit and kinetic barriers, both of which were utterly useless by the way against the heat of re-entry. I suffocated to death and froze while in space, THEN I got dragged into atmosphere for re-entry, and possibly my body was a burning comet when I passed atmosphere before slamming hard into the earth with the force to reduce ALL of my bones into mush. Considering all of that, how can you say that I did NOT die? I was by all rights as a friend of mine later on said when he got a look at me 'meat and tubes.'"

Batman was trying his best to see if the man was pulling their leg, he could see the emotions in Dylan's face and the shock of the memory so he could see that he was not lying. But it was still hard to grasp that he was actually still alive before them. He then turned to J'onn and spoke to the Martian.

"Is he telling the truth J'onn?"

The others looked at their Martian companions and he soon nodded.

"Yes, Dylan is telling the truth, he did die when the unknown vessel attacked the first Normandy, and what he described to us did indeed happen to him."

"By Hera…"

"Damn…"

Diana was wide eyed at the news as she looked at the man before her, such a death should have not been possible for anyone to survive from. Even the most powerful human beings would have already been nothing but bones from such an event. Yet here was the man before them all and she could not help but be impressed.

John then spoke next though this time he gave Dylan a higher measure of respect as he did so. The man went through hell from the day of the attack of his home and yet here he was before them. And he was literally nothing more than charred meat yet here he was, alive and whole.

"Then how the heck did you come back to life…sir?"

Dylan spoke in answer to that.

"Do you recall my Asari friend Liara T'Soni?"

As the heroes nodded, he continued the story.

"Liara went out of her way to find me, even when all the official sources labeled me as dead, she went out of her way to try and find my body. She went out to Omega and when she got there, she began to try and find information and an audience with the Shadow Broker. The reason for that was her desire to try and find my body and allow it to be buried properly since the Alliance was too short handed at the time to find me, that and the attack had somehow jammed communications. She and a Drell named Feron eventually found out that the Blue Suns, a mercenary outfit was hired by the Shadow Broker to recover my body to be given to the Collectors."

"Collectors? You mean there are beings that actually collect the bodies of the dead? That's…sacrilegious!"

Wonder Woman was offended by such news as to her people's way, all of those who died deserved to be given a proper funeral. Shepard deserved a proper warrior's burial for all he had done for his people.

Dylan replied to that.

"That's true, but it's a lot more complicated than that. The short version of it all was that Liara managed to get my body back from the Shadow Broker who was actually the one who was hired by the Collectors to get my corpse. She however had to leave Feron behind and was forced to give my body to Cerberus as they had said that they would need it for something important, she did not want to do it, but she had no choice at that time."

Hawkgirl was the next to speak as she was surprised at the idea of Cerberus actually wanting to take Shepard when he was by all rights a dead man and who should have been allowed his rest, considering the fact that he and his team had been a serious thorn in their side. She also could tell that the same sentiment was in the minds and faces of the others League members.

"Why would Cerberus want your body? They should have already been pleased by the fact that you were already dead and no longer a threat to them. Why the heck would they be willing to find you?"

Dylan sighed and replied.

"That in itself is also very long story."

…

Dylan began to tell them just what happened to him after his body had been recovered and given to Cerberus. He told them that he had actually been brought back to life by Cerberus in what they aptly called Project Lazarus, after the man who was brought back from the realm of the dead by Jesus Christ in Christian Faith. They apparently from what he had learned later on was that they had literally pumped in billions of credits and all manner of bleeding edge cybernetics and medical technology to bring him back from being just 'meat and tubes' as Jacob phrased it. He continued with the explanations on what happened afterwards when the station fell under attack and he was soon able to meet Miranda Lawson and Jacob Taylor.

The heroes were stunned somewhat by the idea of Cerberus willing to spend that much and invest so much into one man, a man who by all rights was one of their enemies. They however decided not to stop the man as he and EDI continued to explain the details. This was a story

He soon got to the point he arrived at Freedom's Progress and how he was soon reunited with his old team mate Tali. The team watched the video records and how they were able to see the way that Tali now looked after nearly two years. The fact that she was still able to recognize her former commander and close friend and the discussion that happened between them confirmed it. They watched his battles and how he and the others saw the records of the Collectors, these beings were unlike what they had seen before and the situation between Shepard and Miranda as he prevented them from taking the Quarian who recorded the data. Stewart was the one who spoke out about what they had learned.

"Hold it…this Cerberus, a rogue Black Ops organization that has caused that much damage to Humanity's standing in the galactic community and had been one of your enemies in your hunt for this rogue Spectre Saren goes out of their way to bring you back to life? They actually put billions of credits into you, all the bleeding edge tech they could find, steal, or develop, get the finest doctors and personnel, and spent two years bringing you literally back from the dead to fight these Collectors?"

Shepard nodded at that.

"That pretty much sums it up, The Illusive man said that even if he had an army and a fleet ready with all the stuff they spent on getting me back, I was still needed, I was more than a man, I was a symbol, and an ideal. The first Human Spectre, and the Savior of the Citadel…fat lot of good that did for a time. I tried to get used to the idea of working for the man and decided that despite my dislike for Cerberus, I was willing to work with them for the sole reason of fighting the Collectors and the Reapers, who were the ones working the Collectors. I needed a good crew for that and a ship…Cerberus provided."

Batman did not like the implications of the alliance Shepard made with Cerberus, he did understand to some measure the reasons Cerberus had for their actions. But their methods were completely abhorrent to the Dark Knight, and he made that clear to Shepard in his tone of voice.

"You actually agreed to work with these terrorists?"

Shepard sighed and shook his head once more.

"I was not in their payroll and I did not buy in to their rhetoric and ideals, I am not naïve you know, having some measure of protection from hostile forces happens to be alright to me, but their way of doing it is not me. But with the Alliance tied up in patrol duties alongside the Citadel and what happened after Sovereign, plus my two years being a carcass, and colonies dropping off the radar like stones, I did not have much choice. It was an alliance of convenience, nothing more. "

…

Dylan carried on by telling how he had been given the Normandy and also meeting two of his long time friends, Joker and Chakwas and how he decided to try and get Alliance and Council support and possibly have some access to the Spectre resources he had in the past. When he detailed his meeting with his old mentor Anderson, Councilor Anderson actually and the Citadel Council who he had saved two years prior to his actual death, the League was not the least bit amused, with Diana being more vocal about it.

"That is outrageous! They willingly ignore your warnings, even call you mad and dismiss what you have learned? You risked your life for such beings, made such hard choices and even after they commended you and honored you, they condemn you the very second you came back literally from the halls of the dead? Those people have no right to be representing their people like that! You literally died for them and instead of trusting you; they treat you like you were an enemy!"

Stewart had to agree with Diana on this one and while he knew of the political bullshit that happened every now and then, this action of the Council was just plain madness.

"I have to agree with her on this one, what they did was completely stupid and utterly baseless. You risked everything you had and they don't even have the decency to give you the benefit of a doubt?"

The sentiment was there with the other heroes and Dylan nodded as EDI next spoke.

"Your sentiments are very much appreciated, but Commander Shepard did at the very least regain Spectre status and this helped us avoid the risk of getting the ire of those who could use their clout to get the Council after us."

Dylan nodded in agreement.

"It might have been only a paper seal, but EDI was right, getting my Spectre status back did make sure that I did not have to worry about the Council getting on my case. They could just say that my death was all a cover for my activities in the Terminus Systems, and they did. Plus Anderson did give me access to the supplies of credits I gathered over the years after my battle with Saren. All that and what I got on my own afterwards saved my backside and that of my crew more than once."

…

He continued on how he managed to go to Omega and what he told them about the dark version of the Citadel was not the least bit promising. Hawkgirl was the first to speak once he was done with the description of the space station.

"So in simple terms, that space station was the melting pot filled with every criminal element the galaxy has to offer? Sounds like the kind of place that I can get a lot of exercise in since all I have to do is wait for someone to try something stupid."

Batman said nothing but he was disturbed by what he had heard concerning Omega, he no doubt that if the place did exist here in this universe of his, it would become the one place even he would never dare to step into. As for the others, they all could not help but be worried about the idea of people, regular people living in such a place filled with all manner of dangers, living and non living.

Dylan nodded as he saw the looks there, but he was not going to stop his telling of the mission and so he continued to tell the heroes about how he was able to recruit Mordin Solus and counter a powerful plague that was being used to kill all the other alien residents and leave the humans alive after meeting with the confirmed leader of Omega, an Asari named Aria T'Loak.

The plague had driven the non humans into a frenzy of anger and human residents were in danger of being killed on sight, and it was done by the Blood Pack to take over the territory of the Blue Suns mercenary group. He and his team had to fight their way through surviving Blood Pack and Blue Sun forces and save both human and non humans who were not part of the battle itself. And once they came to Mordin's clinic, he told the heroes of how he first met the Salarian doctor and then their battles with the full might of the Blood Pack to deliver the cure itself once they were on their way. Mordin was not too pleased with the idea of working with Cerberus due to their reputation and methods though he did admire their access to resources, supplies and personnel.

…

Next he and his team were soon sent to find Archangel and there he had to deal with mercs who had less than honorable intentions towards Miranda. Diana had to admit that seeing Miranda Lawson send the two men flying with a Biotic strike to the ground and kneeing one more of the men in the groin was unsurprising yet amusing to an extent. This was also where he met the mercenary Zaeed and learned of his mission to deal with his old colleague and how he convinced a young man to take a different path, not too gently though. Along with meeting the leader of all three mercenary outfits and gathering data that could help later on in getting Aria's favor.

They did not approve of what he had done to the tech operating the gunship as well as the mechs but Dylan replied that his actions on those matters were needed later on. They watched as Dylan and his newly expanded team including Zaeed fought past the mercs to meet Archangel, and he was amazed to see that Archangel was his long time friend Garrus. Apparently Garrus and his team, all of whom but one, the traitor, died and he was fighting alone for days with no food or sleep until he and the others came. It was a good but sobering reunion for the long time friends and now they had to fight past all three mercenary groups.

The heroes saw everything right down to the terrible wounds suffered by Garrus after the sabotage done by Dylan and his team did their work on the gathered enemies before them all. They were relieved to see that Garrus survived and soon share some time to chat about their current status. They soon moved to do some more things to gather whatever supplies they needed and other equipment before they soon moved to help Zaeed. Shepard made the right move in assigning Garrus to a secondary team to help save the people who were endangered by Zaeed in his quest for revenge while he and the others went after Vido.

It was a move that met with disapproval all around the League, but Dylan replied calmly as he knew that what he had done with Garrus was the right move.

"Garrus saved as many lives as he could, I never liked what I had to do, but you have to make choices in war, none of them were right in some ways but I did not have time or options on my side. Zaeed eventually changed a bit though, and despite his drive for revenge, he was a man of his word and he kept his promise to help us win the battle that was to come."

He continued with the recruitment of Jack and how he and those who followed him had been forced to fight their way through Purgatory and how he had to convinced the Biotic convict to side with them. He had to promise her access to the Cerberus databases and he kept his word though that meant earning the ire of Miranda. Something that he had to get used to for a while and it was not long before Hawkgirl spoke about his recruitment choices.

"You decided to bring someone like her in the crew? Not to sound like I'm insisting that you've lost your mind or anything, but why bring someone with her profile and track-record?"

Dylan sighed and thought back on those moments.

"Jack was very much a dangerous person and she has a track record to boot, but like everything and everyone I had dealt with before, she had her reasons. She was called Subject Zero for a reason since she was kidnapped by Cerberus as a child."

Superman did not like the direction this conversation was going. This reminded him of the time he had to deal with Volcana when she had shown up. And for some reason, this Jack reminded him very much of the woman he had hoped would not go back to the life of crime.

"Kidnapped her?"

"She was Biotic and the Cerberus cell responsible for this wanted to see if they could use negative emotions, pain, and the like to increase Biotic potential. And the way they did that was what drove Jack into becoming the Biotic that she was."

He gave them the details of what he learned before and after going to Pragia, the place that held Jack prisoner for most of her life. The way she had been used by Cerberus filled with heroes with absolute horror and disgust. To condition her with drugs to the point that combat, pain, and blood would make her happy. And to subject countless other children as lab rats for this filled them with even more disgust at how far Cerberus would go to do what they felt was the right course of action, even if it meant spilling the blood of others, human or not.

"How could you work with them?"

"Trust me when I say this, that discovery only added to what I planned to do when this was all over with me and the Collectors. But for now, I had to stomach it and in the end, Jack had freed herself after she blew that place sky high and did not become the weapon that Cerberus planned to use for their very own ends."

…

The story continued to the recovery of Okeer, though the Krogan Warlord died and was replaced by his creation, the one called Grunt eventually by him. It had been one heck of a meeting but he did not mind as the Krogan proved to be a very capable addition to the crew in terms of ability both physical and in terms of firepower. This was soon balanced by the different missions he took to build resources and develop technology and the mission that took place over Horizon as the technology that Mordin developed was put to use to fight the Collectors' bug swarms that sought to take all humans alive but unable to fight back.

The technology proved very helpful as he and his team fought their way towards the ship of the Collectors to stop them. They had to activate the planet's main defense batteries and use that to attack the Collectors' vessel. Along the way they discovered the presence of Harbinger, a form of enemy that was unlike what they had fought before, but it was obvious that it was the leader or puppet master of the Collectors as it possessed them in a very horrible fashion as the heroes saw it. Shepard and his group managed to win and there was a reunion with Kaidan who was at first happy to see his commanding officer, but only for a while as he was not pleased to see that Dylan was with Cerberus. Dylan had to convince his long time friend that he was not part of Cerberus but in the end, even though they managed to mend their fences somewhat Kaidan he still did not side with Dylan.

The heroes continued to listen as EDI played the rest of the records, namely on how he had to deal with not just recruiting the rest of his team, but to also help his current crew with their problems. He had dealt with Garrus tracking down his former team member who betrayed him and the others who died on Omega. They watched as he managed to finally stop his Turian friend from being drawn deeper into anger and hate as it was consuming him. And he did it by willingly lowering his defenses and protecting the former team member of Garrus' dead team the Turian Sidonis from Garrus' weapon. It was not long before they heard Sidonis confess to his actions and why he did it, and it was not long before Garrus finally lowered his weapon and allowed him to live, and how this helped him.

They also bore witness to him recruiting none other than Kasumi Goto and agreeing to help her recover the grey-box that her former partner, and loved one had once owned. The battle that followed had been a tough one once they were through the defenses of the man Donovan Hock and what happened afterwards. Kasumi was happy to know that Shepard was a man of his word and was more than willing to lend her expertise to his cause against the Collectors. And she would promise to help him when the time came to deal with anything that needed a more covert and yet interesting touch.

…

He then helped Jacob on how to deal with the discovery of his father being alive though he was confused by the fact that it had been nearly a decade or more since he had last seen his father. The images showed how they came to the world that the ship his father had been part of crashed on and what happened to the crew and the horror that followed afterwards. Diana and Hawkgirl were the most affected by this as they learned of what happened to the women and how the man who was once Jacob's father had allowed this to happen. The others also listened to it as they saw Jacob become more convinced that this was indeed the work of his father, but he no longer saw this man as his parent and when they faced him, Jacob was close to shooting him in the face for what he had done. But Dylan convinced him to let it go, he was better than this and his father would be punished for his actions by the Alliance who he felt would be better equipped to handle this.

…

Next for them to see was how he dealt with a matter that was truly important as he helped Jack finally put her demons to rest as they came back to Pragia. The sight of the Teltin facility and the information that Jack gave on what she had been subjected to was something that got the attention of the heroes easily. They could not help but see just what Cerberus had done to twist her into what she was before them and how she had managed to survive even if it meant killing others. The actions done by Cerberus to her and the other children filled the heroes with anger at the inhuman actions of the cell that commanded the place and they witnessed as Jack was prevented by Dylan from killing the only survivor of the facility apart from her, to turn her back on what Cerberus had tried to turn her into.

It was unknown if it fully brought Jack the peace she secretly wanted, but knowing that the facility that tried to turn her into a Cerberus pet project was now nothing more than a ruin made her more…stable. And considering her past, that was a good thing.

…

He then directed his attention to rescuing his former crew member on the first Normandy and one of his close friends Tali. They watched as they arrived on the world Haestrom, that Tali was on along with her own band of Quarian forces and how they had to fight away from the intense heat and radiation of the sun against the might of the Geth that were there to stop Tali. It was an intense battle as they had to fight not just large numbers of well armed and equipped Geth, but the upgraded Geth Colossus sent there to stop them cold from going any further. Thankfully they were able to save some of Tali's people and save her in time. Tali gave the data to her second in command and soon join the Normandy though she was less than pleased by the presence of an A.I which was EDI's mother as it were. The only reason she said that she was even willing to step on a Cerberus owned ship was that Shepard was in command of the operation, and for his actions back at Freedom's Progress.

…

He soon dealt with the situation that brought Miranda's own situation to light for the heroes as they learned how she had been born. The idea of a man of wealth and influence creating clones of himself and molding them the way he did and treating them more ad dolls to carry his legacy and not as children was not pleasing to the heroes. And Henry Lawson in Superman's mind sounded like that world's version of his long time enemy Lex Luthor, only a lot more dangerous. And to learn that in order to spare her 'sister' Orianna the kind of life she had, where although she had everything she could want, she was treated more as a tool than family and everything she had always came with a price and a trap, Miranda kidnapped her sister when she was a baby, it was extreme to be sure, but in this case was justified. To protect the only one she called family she joined Cerberus to use their resources to protect Orianna, but now her father found out and Miranda asked Shepard to help her get her sister and the family who adopted her. They saw the battle and learned of the more vulnerable side of the once cold and focused executive officer and saw the bond that formed between her and Dylan as a result. The young woman was saved and while Miranda's friend Niket tried to do the right thing, dying by the hands of the Eclipse leader, it did not break Miranda.

In the end it was that event that made Miranda change and start the relationship between her and Dylan as she revealed that despite all her abilities she was still jealous of Shepard due to his accomplishments through hard work, skills, and his ability to command such loyalty in others, which now included her despite her status as the Illusive Man's spy.

They also watched Dylan prevent a literal catfight between Jack and Miranda due to Jack's past with Cerberus and Miranda's ties with them. It was impressive how he managed to finally prevent both biotically gifted women from literally tearing the ship to pieces and still manage to retain their loyalty afterwards.

…

Along the way of his missions, he gathered all the resources and credits he could and docked the ship to allow it to be upgraded as best he could for the soon to come mission into the Omega Relay. He was not going to take chances and lose the new Normandy for a second time as he did the first and he made sure that they had all the upgraded equipment, firepower, and technology they could get, along with him upgrading his own cybernetics on the off chance he needed it. They also bore witness to him taking the chance to visit the first Normandy crash site and gather the names of those of his old crew who died there and help the Alliance recover it and whatever things that were left there.

They eventually bore witness to him recruiting Samara the Asari Justicar during her hunt for an Ardet-Yakshi while on Ilium itself and after fighting the Eclipse Sisterhood, he had managed to gain the allegiance of the Justicar as well as helping the law enforcement there with the aid of Liara who provided valuable information to him. They were surprised at the way she had turned out two years after what happened to Shepard but saw that it was something that she had to do in order to track down the Shadow Broker. It was not an easy thing for Dylan himself as he remembered what Liara was like prior to working as an information broker, but her confession of what happened after he helped her alleviated him of his worry and her guilt, as he assured her that her actions had at least given him the chance to do what needed to be done.

Afterwards, he also made the move to recruit the Drell Assassin Thane Krios and while some of the heroes were not too happy with an assassin in such a group, Thane's sincerity in doing what good he could before he died of the disease killing him was enough to calm them.

It was at this point that he had to help Grunt deal with his Krogan nature and thus they had to go to the Krogan DMZ and to Tuchanka, the Krogan home-world. Once they got there the heroes got to see the ruined home world and they were soon greeted by none other than Urdnot Wrex who now was the leader of the Krogan. Wrex was not in the mood to listen to the antics of the Krogan trying to advise him and when he saw his old human friend, the Krogan Battlemaster and leader smiled and greeted Dylan happily, and kept the dissenting Krogan down with a well placed head-butt, much to the amusement and respect of the tank bred Krogan.

After a while, the League watched as Shepard and Grunt took part of the trial, facing off against the native life forms of Tuchanka to allow Grunt to take his Rite of Passage. The ultimate test of maturity for any Krogan to take, for which the dissenting Krogan felt Grunt had no place in taking as a Tank bred Krogan and not as a true born Krogan. The battles that Dylan and Grunt faced together were demanding but it was clear that the Krogan began to see what made the human his leader and soon they fought with a Thresher Maw. The mission was to survive for a set amount of time but both Grunt and Dylan did the unthinkable at least considering that there were only two of them and slew the Thresher Maw in battle. They soon fought with the same Krogan and his group who desired to use Grunt as a mere tool, unlike Shepard who valued Grunt as an ally and soldier. And when it was over, Grunt changed into a far better soldier and no longer allowed his Blood Rage to take over when he did not want it to.

…

The next images detailed Shepard dealing with Mordin's former student Maeleon and his being part of the project team that created the more advanced genophage. It was to be expected that they had to find out just what Maeleon told the Blood Pack. Wrex in Dylan's mind was a better choice than the leader of the Blood Pack and he made that clear many times as they drove deeper into the Krogan hospital that served as the base of the Blood Pack. They also saw the trading of words on morality and ethics between Mordin and Shepard as they spoke on the effects of the genophage. They soon fought the leader of the Blood Pack who Mordin personally defeated and soon faced Maeleon, only to learn that Maeleon helped the Blood Pack willingly, in the belief that the genophage was wrong, even when the evidence said otherwise. Mordin nearly executed his former student but Dylan stopped him and told him that it was over. They took the data of what he worked on and Mordin was convinced to keep it for use in the future.

…

Shepard soon dealt with a matter that was hard for him, Samara, and the League to know of as she told him that she had finally tracked down the Ardet-Yakshi she had been hunting prior to joining them. Her quarry was on Omega and she had no doubt that this was going to be her only chance to end the terror this creature had brought to others. Shepard agreed, only to learn that the Ardet-Yakshi, going by the name of Morinth was Samara's own daughter. That shocked everyone as Batman spoke to the Spectre.

"She asked you to help her track down and kill her own daughter?"

"Pretty much, and Morinth was not innocent, she had spent nearly all her years running hunting down and killing countless people due to her condition as an Ardet-Yakshi. Samara eventually told me that she had even corrupted an entire village of simple living Asari, making them send their own daughters to her to feed on. She had enthralled them for so long that all of the adults willingly attacked Samara when she came there and she had been forced to kill them, sparing only the children who had not been fed on by her daughter. Their deaths and the others that followed convinced Samara even more to end her daughter's life before countless others fell victim to her."

The images showed how he had lured Morinth out of hiding and how he had convinced her to take him home and how eventually he helped Samara slay her own daughter. It was clear that despite her words and actions, Samara was very much heart broken as she knew that she had committed a sin nothing can wash away. The sin of killing her own child, and the brightest, bravest, and most skilled of her three children, all Ardet-Yakshi. But she also knew that by doing so, she had prevented others from falling victim to her daughter's addictions to death, gave justice to those who she could not save from Morinth's grasp, and gave some measure of closure to the families of her daughter's victims, including Morinth's latest kill whom she and Dylan had visited.

…

Next he personally dealt with Thane's own matters, learning just what Thane had done as a Drell assassin before he was able to marry. It was hard to discover that in order to feed and house his family; Thane returned to being an assassin, but in the end, the past caught up with him as his enemies sought to punish him. But rather than facing Thane himself in combat, the cowards bought information from the Shadow Broker and tracked down his wife and brutally tortured and murdered her. Only their son Kolyat survived the events and afterwards, Thane had him stay with his relatives as he methodically hunted the slayers of his wife down, instead of offering them a quick death, the Drell made it last for days before he finally killed them. Ever since then he vowed to redeem himself by only going for those who had committed cruel and dark acts. But soon he learned that his son was now taking the same path he was. He did not want his son to follow his own path and asked Dylan for help.

Dylan agreed and after some time interrogating the one who hired Kolyat and also locating his target, the pair managed to finally stop Kolyat from becoming a killer himself. Thane explained that the one good thing he ever brought into the world with hands covered with so much blood, human or otherwise was his son, and he wanted his son to live for his own path. The path of the assassin was not what he wanted for his only son and he hoped that Kolyat understood it as he told them why he had been gone for so long, and how he tracked down the slayers of his mother.

Eventually he and Dylan convinced Bailey to allow Kolyat to make up for his actions as a community worker. That surprised the League as such as Superman commented on it.

"You made him do community service?"

"Yeah, and believe it or not…Kolyat became a priest."

Flash whistled at that.

"That's rather interesting, from assassin to be to man of the cloth…or alien of the cloth in this case. Talk about a change, did he do all right?"

"He did. He and Thane talked a lot after the whole mission, speaking of which, where was I again?"

…

Dylan continued to the part where they were sent to secure what appeared to be disabled Collector ship, hit and rendered unable to function for now by a Turian patrol fleet. Already the idea of that being possible sounded very dubious to Shepard and to the League, but through that mission, they uncovered not only the shocking history of the Collectors and what they once were, but the sheer extent of the operations they were doing to collect as many humans as they could. The fact that this was the very same ship that had not only destroyed the first Normandy and had been on Horizon added t to the whole mess. The discovery that it was all the trick by the Illusive Man to gather information did little to make the league happy that Dylan worked with the man.

As soon as they fought their way to freedom, Shepard made sure to give the man he worked with an earful despite accepting the fact that the data was worth getting to SOME extent. They soon found the location of the Collector base and it made sense now why so few had been able to make it back.

Later, he was soon asked for help by Tali as she had received word that she was being accused of treason by her own people. Tali was distraught by this and had informed him that prior to her going on the mission to Haestrom, she had been sending purposely deactivated Geth components to her father in the Fleet in hopes that they could find ways to re-take their home-world someday. Shepard understood the reasoning behind it and decided to aid his long time friend. Once they got there, they were informed of the true extent of the situation. One of the Quarian Fleet ships, a converted research lab where her father worked had been lost to active Geth which had not yet spread out over the Fleet. Tali was shocked at this and denied willingly sending Geth to the Fleet and Shepard supported her, finally convincing the Admirals to allow Tali to prove her innocence by finding out what exactly was going on and gathering evidence as well as taking back the ship.

Here he learned of the situation within the Fleet and the deep divide in it, seeing that there was more to Tali's trial than mere act of betrayal, and several Quarians were not in agreement over this. This included Veetor and Kal'Reagar as they promised to stand alongside Tali to prove her innocence. Their move to reclaim the ship turned up some very disturbing facts about what had happened here, and Tali was the most affected as she saw what exactly her father had done, all for the sake of his promise to her to one day help her set foot on their ancestral world and building a house there. Shepard was not too pleased with the situation but he kept an open mind and accepted that while it was distasteful to some extent, the necessity of it was there for him to see. They soon found the body of Tali's father and Tali was utterly devastated to see this and it took a lot out of her, but he managed to help pull her through. They soon purged all the Geth from the ship and returned back with the data that Tali's father had gathered.

He then spoke passionately about Tali's innocence and the truth behind the trials, even though the Admirals were none too pleased by it. But his spirited defense of his long time friend aroused the spirits of the other Quarians including Veetor and Kal'Reagar and soon forced the Admirals to declare Tali innocent of the charges. That was something of a talking point afterwards on the ship and Tali was happy for what Shepard had done, sticking his neck out for her sake. To which he jokingly reminded her that he had stuck his neck out for her before, giving her a copy of the data she had two years prior since that was technically top secret Alliance data.

…

Their next mission however took them into a direction that none of the League were prepared to see, a derelict Reaper which despite being dead in all senses was still active in others. Apparently a special IFF device was discovered in the ruins by a Cerberus science team but the team had gone dark. They had to go and recover it though the Illusive Man warned Shepard of the risk of the science team and their escorts being lost. Once they got there, the League saw through the memories of Shepard what happened to the science team and their forces inside the Reaper. As Shepard and his group got the device they were now cut off by the Reaper's shields and had to fight for their lives through their forces inside it to get to the core and disable it.

Only problem with that was the said core was the only thing keeping this evil hulk of an alien ship afloat, once it was gone, it was a one way trip to the ground. Along the way, the group had to be wary of the effects of indoctrination and the Husks as well whatever cybernetic monstrosities were in the ship. There they discovered that they were hardly alone as a Geth unit was there, but this one was actually AIDING them. And once they got to the core of the ship, they fought off the Husks to destroy the core and take the Geth unit with them.

Dylan soon decided to reactivate the Geth after intense security was used to secure it, there it learned of the origins of the Geth he and his old unit had fought with two years prior. And the Geth was soon given a name, Legion, quite appropriate considering the number of programs that made up it's 'consciousness'. Tali was LESS than amused by all this and only backed down when Dylan spoke to her about what he had learned.

…

It was also here that Legion revealed that the rogue Geth or the Heretics as he and the others called them planned to use a Reaper virus to convert all the Geth into willing servants of the Reapers. It was something the Geth would not allow since doing so was denying them a future that they wanted to shape for themselves and not have it given to them. And Dylan saw quickly that if this was allowed to pass, the full might of the Geth would be in the hands of the Reapers, something that no one wanted. They came to a special Geth base to do what they could to stop the virus and managed to avoiding waking up the majority of the Heretic Geth and when they got there, Legion revealed that the virus could be re-written to bring the Heretics back to the fold. That was both a good and bad thing in the eyes of the crew, especially Tali but Dylan decided to risk it, and that forced them to fight off wave after wave of Heretic Geth to allow the virus to do it's work.

Once that mission was over, a confrontation between Tali and Legion occurred as the Quarian caught Legion transmitting data to the Geth from her own tool. She claimed that it was going to reveal secrets to the other Geth from the Fleet, which was true. This was countered by Legion stating that like Tali it was defending it's own people from their creators since they were already developing weapons and means to kill them. Both sides had a point but Dylan reminded them that with the Reapers coming, their respective people had more important things to deal with and after some time, both stood down with Tali allowing only some data while Legion vowed not to reveal anything too sensitive to it's people.

…

Their final mission as a team took them to a Cerberus research area by Dr. Archer, one of the most skilled cybernetics experts in the known world, and obviously under employ of Cerberus. Apparently his brother had been part of a project by Cerberus to communicate with the Geth, as his brother possessed exceptional math skills due to his condition, which actually allowed him to communicate with the Geth at the data level. But somehow the whole process went wrong and his brother had gone insane. Dylan and his team were told that if David downloaded himself into anything that could allow him to escape, then it would be a disaster.

It was a disaster all right, but not the way Dylan saw it as he and his team fought their way to the three stations to get to David. They saw and learned the extent of what was done to David and as they came ever closer, Shepard and his crew, Miranda, Jacob, and Jack included finally saw just how far things had come. They all saw David before them and what Cerberus had done to him and why he was finally driven mad with pain, rage, and anguish.

The League also saw this and they were horrified, Superman could not help but gape in shock as what David had been subjected to. Batman was wide eyed at the sight of the young man literally being turned into a living computer. Flash was sick and was going to hurl at the sight of it. Hawkgirl was unable to say anything at the sight before her. J'onn could not help but be struck hard by the way David was being used by Cerberus. John was enraged and his fists were clenched hard as he looked at David. And Diana was just as angered and horrified at the thought of Dr. Archer willingly doing this to his own kin.

"How…How could…how could he call himself David's brother if he willingly allowed this to be done to him!"

Dylan clenched his fists at the memories before him and replied.

"I asked him that same question, both with my words and one mean right hook, though the others had more permanent ideas. I had David taken to the Alliance for treatment and I spared Archer because despite all this, I did not want to force David to see his own brother executed in front of him, he suffered enough already. And this was the second to the last nail in the coffin with my alliance with Cerberus. This also helped to convince Miranda further about how wrong Cerberus was in it's mission. The real nail in the coffin came after we turned on the IFF before we went on the mission."

…

And Dylan's words were right as they learned that while they were aiding David that the Collectors had managed to snatch the crew of the Normandy and only Joker, and EDI were left as Joker had been forced to unshackle EDI to prevent the Normandy from falling. Joker had managed to escape death and accomplished it. Dylan checked the full status of the ship and seeing that they had everything in place for the final push gave the order to go through the Omega Relay. He made sure not to include the night with Miranda before the battle though, no need for the League to see that.

But what the League did see was how Shepard's acquiring of technology for the Normandy and his team as well as gaining their full support helped them. The upgrades on the ship not only allowed it to survive the debris field and the Oculus attack which Shepard and his team countered, but to also survive the battle with the same cruiser that slew the first Normandy and kill that same ship. The Normandy crash landed and soon the team had to fight their way into the very heart of the base and had more than their fair share of close calls. There they saw now the horror of what the Collectors had been doing to the humans they took as they saw…a human Reaper. The Collectors were harvesting humans to help create a new Reaper right before the eyes of the League and the heroes were shocked to the core of their bones by this.

Even more so when they witnessed one captured colonist being literally liquefied before them through Shepard's own memories as the team finally found their crew. Shepard quickly managed to have Mordin accompany them to safety to the Normandy while he and the rest of the team fought their way to the Reaper that as being born. They managed to divide into two forces with Miranda and Grunt with him while the rest kept the Collectors from them. They managed to weaken the new Reaper and when they spoke to the Illusive Man, his plan on taking over the base and using it's technology was revealed.

Needless to say the heroes of the League were LESS than convinced as John spoke.

"That man's insane! He already knew of what happened to his own forces inside a DEAD Reaper, why the hell would he think that he and his people would be able to use that base?"

The others were of the same sentiment as Shepard answered them.

"I gave him the boot about that myself, the whole place was an abomination and the deaths of all those people. Naturally it was not the end of it as Harbinger and that ugly monstrosity came back for more just as we loaded special explosive charges in key areas of the power regulation systems there.."

The images of the battle played out before the League and they were literally holding their breath as Shepard and company fought the Reaper coming at them along with the Collectors. The battles was indeed intense and when they finally slew the monstrous being, the League looked on as Shepard managed to save Miranda as she nearly fell to the pit with the now slain Reaper. As soon as they left, Harbinger spoke to Shepard, stating what it and it's kin planned. The last thing the League saw was Shepard and the others evacuating to the Normandy and soon leaving as the Collector base finally exploded behind them.

As the Normandy left, battered, and scarred from the last battle and now free of the Omega Relay, Shepard had one last conversation with the Illusive man. That meeting was anything but cordial as Shepard gave his former 'boss' the most explosive way to say I quit. All of his crew survived and those who followed him were alive and safe. That alone impressed the League greatly as Flash spoke to the Spectre.

"Damn…you were not kidding that you were just getting started. But weren't the Reapers coming?"

"We were, and later on, at least a few weeks later once the Normandy was fully repaired, I helped Liara finally save her friend Feron and defeat the Shadow broker in his own ship. Not an easy fight with what he was after all, but worth it as Liara planned to use all the former Yagh's resources to help fight the Reapers. But the real test was when I was called by Admiral Hackett to help locate a deep cover agent of his though I had to go alone."

"Alone?"

"Yep…and like before, that mission was going to go south."

…

Shepard continued to explain just what happened after he did what he did on the Relay that killed numerous Batarian civilians, something that he had not liked doing since despite his marked dislike for Batarians, he tempered it with his mature outlook and what he knew was coming. He told them of how he had willingly given himself up to the Alliance to stand trial while he told the others to do what they could to prepare the galaxy for the soon to come invasion. Yet another thing that annoyed the League considering the sacrifices and pain that Dylan had to go through to stop the Reapers.

They did take into account that many Batarian civilians were killed and thus they were surprised that he willingly admitted to it and wished that it had not happened. But with the Reapers coming he had no choice but to do what he did.

But it was not enough as the Reapers came in through another way as they saw him and the rest of the Defense Committee be caught off guard as the Reapers descended on the surface of Earth. Already the attack had begun as buildings were being destroyed by the Reapers' weapons and the heroes watched as Shepard, and those who could still be able to fight moved to engage the Reapers and their ground forces.

They saw what the Reapers had done to their victims and how Shepard had been forced to do the unthinkable and leave his world behind to get the aid of the Council to fight the threat. Along the way, he was reunited with Liara on Mars and helped her recover vital clues on a Prothean super weapon called the Crucible to fight the Reapers. They also witnessed him hunt down a Dr. Eva Core who was a Cerberus spy unit who was more of an android than human and how Kaidan had nearly been killed before Shepard downed the unit. And how along the way, EDI, or rather EDI's mother the first one gained the body as it's own.

…

Flash was the first to speak about that course of action and showed that he recovered from the previous amount of hurling that he had done before when he and the others saw what had been the fate of all the kidnapped colonists when Shepard hit the Collector base.

"You mean to say that you had to leave Earth behind to get the help of those tightwads, after all the crap that they shoved in heaps into your face and calling your insane for talking about the Reapers?"

"Yeah, I can tell you right now that the decision made me sick to my stomach, but Anderson was right, and I knew that he was right. We already lost contact with Arcturus Station and the Fleets stationed there, and we learned that the entire Alliance Parliament were all slain so we were pretty much on our own. We could not win this war even if we gathered all the Fleets of the Alliance together, and I stuck to the need even after being chewed over by Vega. Needless to say, the Council finally accepted that the Reapers were the real deal…but getting their support did not come easy."

And the League saw that he was not kidding as they were stunned out of their minds at what the Council asked of Shepard BEFORE they would lend the support of the Citadel forces and that of their people's own military might. Hawkgirl was the more vocal one at that exact moment as she could not help but comment at the actions and 'requests' of the Council

"They WANTED you to help them save THEIR worlds first BEFORE they could help your world and your people? After ALL the warnings you gave, after all the evidence you gathered, for which they scorned you for nearly a year, and call you insane? Those idiots have SOME nerve asking that from you! You warned them from day one that the Reapers were real, and they did not believe you even when one of those same Reapers nearly killed them! They even had the nerve to call it a Geth creation even if everything said otherwise! And now when the truth finally comes out for them to see and no longer deny, they ask you to save their ungrateful asses AGAIN? How you even managed to stomach that crap I will never know. Those ungrateful…"

J'onn himself spoke as well.

"I am in agreement with Hawkgirl, for them to ask such things from you, even demand it from you is a travesty. But I must admit that I am impressed by the fact that despite all of that, you agreed to do it."

Dylan nodded at that in full agreement.

"Same with me, I was driven to the edge at times by what they did, but I knew that despite my own feelings, I had to get the job done for the sake of not just myself, but all life in the galaxy. I knew that even with the Council forces on our side, along with possibly the Turian Hierarchy, the Asari Republics, and the Salarian Union, we needed more. So I had to go and find every possible asset I could get."

And he was correct as he showed them how he had to gather every ally and resource he could get, ranging from technology, credits, resources, weapons, armor, supplies, and also man power. The fact he had worked to enlist even mercenaries and also the forces of the Volus, Hanar and the Drell, the Elcor, the Batarians, Liara's forces during her time as the Shadow Broker, and more besides showed to the heroes how far Shepard had t go to really build a force needed to fight the Reapers and develop the Crucible itself. He even fought to confiscate any Cerberus weapons and equipment and gain the aid of members of Cerberus who had left as they could no longer stand the direction of Cerberus and the Illusive Man's tactics along with the discovery of the use of Reaper based technology in the army Cerberus commanded. He also went out of his way to gather all whatever he could to increase the overall military strength and morale of every military asset that he could get his hands on.

This also allowed him to reunite with his old team members, ranging from Jacob Taylor, Kelly Chambers, Thane Krios, Kasumi Goto, Zaeed, and also Grunt later on that resulted in recruit the Rachni who belonged to the queen he spared two years prior, and meeting Miranda as they also affirmed their relationship and she went to help protect her sister from their father. They also saw him provide her with all the information she needed against Kai Leng should he come between her and her mission. The last part of their meeting prior to her going all out on her mission was their meeting in the Citadel to ask for Alliance support, to which Dylan agreed to and how she told him about the guilt she had when it concerned the time in the Lazarus Project. This was due to her desire to use a control chip on him which was revoked by the Illusive Man, and after all they had been through she felt that instead of running from her father, she was becoming like him.

Dylan forgave her and that was enough to make both of them happy as she soon left to finish what she started.

The most recent addition to his team was naturally Javik, one of the last of the Protheans who was found on Eden Prime due to an attack by Cerberus, the last Prothean eagerly joined though he expressed surprise of the rise of the 'lesser' races.

They watched as he and his team traveled to Palaven to get to the war Summit only to find that the Primarch they had been sent to meet was dead. The Turian General on the scene explained that the only option was to find the next in line for Primarch and that was Adrien Victus. There they also were reunited with Garrus who was given resources and people by the previous Primarch even if it was too little too late. The reunited team fought their way through the Reaper forces to get to the General, and saw the assault on Palaven by the Reapers as Garrus looked at the sight. They soon managed to get to the new Primarch and convinced him that he could do more good as the Primarch than dying with his men in battle.

Garrus wasted no time in getting back to his old station on the Normandy and vowed to get her back into fighting shape while still working on helping his people, along with his family who were no doubt fighting for their lives.

…

Soon the battle moved to Sur'Kesh, the Salarian home-world in order to get the cure for the Genophage. It turned out that a number of female Krogan had survived Maeleon's experiments back on Tuchanka and were taken in secret by the STG. If they were saved, and a cure developed, then Wrex and his Krogan would unite alongside the Turians and Shepard to fight the Reapers. Naturally the Dalatress at the time was LESS than pleased with the idea and did not want to allow it. Even though Victus agreed to some extent on her concerns, he reminded her that with the Reapers closing in, they had no other option.

As soon as they came there, the world was soon under attack by Cerberus and it was clear that they had the Krogan female as their target. And thus he and his team were forced to fight through the Cerberus forces to get the last surviving Krogan female to safety as Wrex stated as the alliance they desperately needed to fight off the Reapers hinged on her survival. The heroes looked on as Dylan and the others fought alongside the newly promoted Major Kirrahe and Mordin Solus to protect the pod containing the Krogan female until they were forced to release her to evacuate her, but she proved more than able to hold her own much to the amusement and respect of Wrex along with the understanding of the others.

Soon the fight went to Tuchanka itself as Dylan knew that now was the right time to cure the genophage, and despite the attempts of the Reapers and the Dalatress to convince him to not allow the cure to be used, he followed through. He revealed to Wrex, the Krogan female known now as Eve by him and the others, and Mordin the sabotage to the Shroud by the STG under the Dalatress' express orders, and Mordin intended to fix the damage done, while Eve expressed great respect for Shepard and Wrex was even more convinced of his friendship with the Spectre. After using the Maw Hammers to summon the BIGGEST Thresher Maw ever seen to battle the Reaper on the surface, the League saw that the cure was indeed released, but at the cost of Mordin's life and eventually the cost of Primarch Victus' own son who despite his failures as a leader, willingly gave his life to prevent a left over weapon from the past from causing all out war between the Turians and the Krogan. Thus despite the fury of the Salarian leader, the Krogan were now fully committed to the battle to fight the Reapers alongside every other race in the galaxy.

And to prove that, the Turians were soon aided by both the Alliance and the Krogan to help retake what they could of Palaven. The idea of Turians and Krogan fighting side by side was considered impossible due to their history, but Dylan made it so.

…

The next battle would also be costly as it took place in the Citadel itself as Cerberus launched an attack on it. The Citadel's people were still truly unaware or did not want to be aware of the state of the galaxy, much to the League's disappointment. But this attack served to wake them up very quickly as C-Sec were forced to take more drastic action as Cerberus forces came in. It was here that Dylan and his team along with the dying but still capable Thane intercepted the top assassin of Cerberus, former N7 Marine Kai Leng, who was sent to kill the Salarian Councilor Valern. It seemed that Valern had realized that Udina, who had taken over as Councilor after Anderson's resignation, had planned to work with Cerberus to stage a coup to help take over the Citadel. And to make things worse, his friend Kaidan who was newly recovered and currently a Spectre was unaware of the coup attempt.

They fought their way through the Cerberus forces while C-Sec moved in to mop up and soon Thane and the others engaged Kai in a display of skill, showing that despite being near death's grasp, the Drell was still dangerous despite Kai Leng's own formidable abilities. However, Thane suffered a mortal wound in the end from the assassin, though Kai was soon forced to leave Valern alive as C-Sec secured Valern who gave the information. After an intense battle and a very tense standoff, Kaidan was convinced of Udina's part in the attack and the traitor was shot before he could harm the Asari Councilor Tevos.

Tevos and the Turian Councilor Sparactus were now fully supporting the war effort and this allowed Shepard to gain access to the Citadel's own forces and the Destiny Ascension, along with the elite Spectres due to his friendship with Kasumi w ho had done a special mission to aid the Spectres. In that moment, news of the attack was enough to convince all personnel in the Citadel to be prepared for the worst as war was now a true possibility. But in the end, despite Kolyat's attempt to save his father with a blood transfusion, Thane died, but he died happy as he had done the galaxy one last good service and died in the presence of his son and the man who made it all possible. Thane's name was soon added alongside Mordin on the memorial.

And it was on the end of the Asari now on with the war effort that a meeting once more between Dylan and Samara happened, and there they learned the intent of the Reapers on one important Asari world mentioned by the government once they got to the planet in question. They intended to use the sterile Asari, the Ardet-Yakshi who were in the monastery there, and this included the two daughters of Samara Falare and Rila. They watched as the group fought alongside the Justicar and they learned that if any Ardet-Yakshi was out of the monastery, they had to be slain. They saw the fate of one of Samara's daughter Rila as she had been affected by the Reapers, but she willingly committed suicide by explosion to prevent her from being used by the Reapers along with the others in the monastery. And soon they saw Shepard willingly save Samara from committing suicide as she could not bring herself to slay her last daughter Falare.

It looked serious but Samara's only child decided to remain in the monastery once it was rebuilt, and promised her mother that if the Reapers came back, she would never let them take her alive. That was the last thing they saw as Samara was hugged by her last surviving child and she finally managed to lower her mask of calm and smile at this. They also witnessed the final meeting between Shepard and Samara as she spoke of her pride and trust in what he had done for her and a farewell as she and the last of the Justicars would make a last stand defense of their home.

…

Soon, they were able to see the team move to the Perseus Veil to meet with the Quarians who were willing to help the allied forces to build the Crucible. They met with the fleet and learned of the fact that the Quarians were now at war with the Geth and that Tali was now an Admiral after the death of her father. After learning of the need to take down the Geth Dreadnaught that was transmitting the Reaper upgrades for the Geth, he and Tali spoke about her worries and fears, and also what happened to Legion after it left them in the end of the war with the Collectors. Shepard also talked with the Quarian admirals to take a full understanding of what was going on with the war with the Geth. Shepard did not want a war to happen as both the Geth and Quarians respectively would be invaluable against the Reapers and their armies as well as Cerberus.

…

Soon the battle took to the Geth Dreadnaught and it was a very bloody affair as Shepard and those under his command including EDI escorted Tali to where she needed to be in order to disrupt the signal that was powering the Geth. They made it to the sight and was shocked to discover that the origin of the signal was Legion itself. The Geth Infiltrator later explained that even after the rewriting of the Geth who sided with Saren and the Reapers, their creators were still deathly intent on wiping them out. This forced all the Geth, even those who were the ones who refused Sovereign years ago to side with the Reapers for their own survival. It was not pleased with this but did so to safeguard the future of it's race. But like before, it decided to aid Shepard and the others in fighting the Reapers, but warned that it would do what it could to defend it's people, even if it meant fighting both Tali and Shepard

…

That event came to pass as the Quarian Fleet soon moved to their ancestral world of Rannoch, now the site of a Reaper base, and the full might of the Geth. Legion pointed out that it was able to learn that the Reapers have downloaded a massive number of upgrades that could make the Geth fully sentient, and it was in it's own core. It intended to give sentience to it's kind to finally realize what the Geth wanted, their own conscience, their own mind, their own 'soul' as it were. Needless to say the Quarians were not too keen on letting that happen and the Geth were more than ready to defend themselves. Shepard, before committing himself and the others on this mission spoke to each Admiral, hoping to prevent all out war or at least make sure that both sides did not end up slaughtering the other before they dealt with the Reaper in command of the base.

The League watched as the team fought their way through the base and here, instead of stopping Legion or siding with Tali, Shepard convinced them to work as one to end the war with both their sides and stand united against the Reapers. That seemed to work as Tali finally agreed, having spoken to Shepard before and the same for Legion as well.

It was not before the heroes witnessed Legion give it's life to allow it's people to finally gain their sentience and become their own race once and for all. And in that moment, it spoke to Tali and after a rather moving speech between Quarian and Geth, Legion no longer said we, but 'I' a very significant thing for a being like itself and briefly but profoundly thanked her and Shepard for making this happen. The Geth, finally a race with it's own will and sentience however were still attacked by the Quarians by their war hawk Admiral Han'Gerrel. But Shepard, having spoken intensely and compassionately to his fellow Admirals was supported by them and Tali, managed to convince Han'Gerrel to stand down. The defeat of the Reaper afterwards was complete as Shepard challenged the stance of the machine being towards the conflict between created and creator, showing that peace between synthetics and organics was possible and not some distant or useless dream.

Despite the Reaper's cold and unfeeling counter argument, Shepard's words proved true, not only did the Geth and the Quarians end their centuries of grudge, but benefits of their working side by side quickly appeared. Geth units began to build vital installations on Rannoch in weeks which normally would have taken months or years, new ships were build in record time, and Geth programs began to help ensure the Quarians had stronger immune systems, and eventually would be freed some the need to wear suits for survival. Tali herself could not help but be amazed and utterly happy that it was possible. Shepard had done something no one would have thought possible, not only were the Quarians home again, but they were no longer exiles, and working with their former creations now allies, the Geth, and through the Geth, new generations of Quarians would be born healthy, strong, and no longer restricted into the suits all their lives.

Through this, the Admirals, seeing that the alliance was beneficial for all sides, and the Geth Consciousness as it was called seeing the same thing, vowed to stand with Shepard and the growing allied races to fight the Reapers. And they too would stand with them to complete the Crucible. This was a feat that the League had to admit was very impressive, with Batman speaking for them.

"You managed to unite the Quarians and the Geth after their centuries of mistrust. That's pretty impressive for you to do."

"It's not over yet."

…

Next for the heroes of the League to see in the battles that Dylan and his crew took part in was the mission that took place over the world of the Asari Thessia after speaking to Tevos. Tevos told them that there was a clue on her people's home world to where the Catalyst might be found, but with the Reapers descending on their world, they had to hurry. Thus he and his team had to recover the data from that world as it was being torn apart by the Reapers and Cerberus.

There on Thessia, or more to the point, a temple was the secret of how the Asari rose to their place in the galaxy. A still functional and well maintained Prothean VI that had access to vast stores of data, and possibly also the data pertaining to the Catalyst itself. However, Cerberus was also after it and had deployed their forces there along with the assault being done by the Reapers on the world itself. This forced Shepard to fight hard as Cerberus was going all out to get their target, and here was where Javik and Liara butted heads as it were.

Thankfully despite Kai's attacks, the team managed to get enough data of their own but had been forced back as Kai's forces finally got what they needed as well and had demolished the temple. Kai gloated about his defeat of Shepard afterwards on a coded message, but he did not bother answering, vowing to settle accounts with the indoctrinated assassin soon.

…

It was not long before they were soon given a message about a Cerberus operation taking place on Horizon itself. Miranda was already there and reported that her father was actually working on how to use indoctrination on other people, no doubt to try and repurpose it for Cerberus and the Illusive man's plan to control the Reapers and place humanity on the top of the galactic food chain, regardless of the cost. Miranda mentioned that she was happy to know that asking for his help for resources and his warnings about Kai Leng were helping, but some help would be welcome. The League watched as Dylan and his team fought their way to see that Miranda's message was right and to make it worse, Oriana was indeed there and held by Henry Lawson.

The meeting between Shepard and the 'father' of Miranda and Oriana was LESS than warm as Miranda was still wounded but strong and alive as Shepard faced the man. He was indeed mad with the belief that what he was doing would finally make him humanity's savior, and accused Miranda of poisoning his daughter. Shepard convinced Henry to release Oriana but Miranda was having none of it and killed him with a Biotic strike. She survived the battle and was happy to be reunited with Dylan and she mentioned that she had tagged Kai Leng with a tracker device after they fought with one another. Miranda was unhappy it turned out like this but he assured her that she was all right and so was her sister, and their father would no longer hunt either of them. The sisters left and soon Shepard and his team would launch the attack on Cerberus itself.

…

The battle at the Cerberus headquarters was the ultimate test for Shepard and his crew, that much was obvious to the heroes there in the War Room. The battles had been hard and more than once Shepard and his team including EDI were hard pressed to make it past the numerous agents and forces that Cerberus had. The good news was that Cerberus had not expected the attack to happen so soon and were not fully organized. There they recovered data pertaining to EDI's origins, revealing that she was part of the rogue VI on Luna those years ago apart from being made from salvaged Reaper technology and data after the defeat of Sovereign. They also spotted the remains of the slain human Reaper and felt that it would be the key.

The mission was clear to Shepard and the others that once this place was secured, they would head to Earth and end it all. There they faced with Kai Leng as the Illusive Man was not around at all. The confrontation was brutal and in the end, Shepard finally killed the former Alliance Marine and assassin with his own Omni Blade. The defeat of Leng and the fall of their base of operations was the first death blow to Cerberus. Shepard finally spoke to the recovered Prothean VI and despite everything, showed sympathy to the machine as it was finally powered down

. And soon the battle for Earth began as Dylan all of his allies and every war asset he could get got ready to fight the Reapers on Earth. The League watched as he spoke to each of the men and women, alien and human one last time, showing how proud he was to have served with all of them to this very end. He also spoke on last time with Miranda, happy to see that she was fully recovered and helping the war effort full time. She herself was happy, yet sad, feeling that maybe this was going to be their last conversation together. He tried to assure her and promised that if anything happens, he was happy to have met her and would stand with her to the end.

And as the battle progressed, the Fleets above earth also engaged the Reapers to bid time for the Crucible to finally be used. The fight to the last area to allow them to get to the Citadel and with him was Vega and Kaiden along with Anderson as both mentor and protégé fought side by side as they did before when Shepard had to leave Earth. Harbinger and the other Reapers did not make it the least bit easy for Shepard and his group and more than once, they were close to death, until he, Vega, Kaidan, and Anderson were hit by Harbinger as the two Alliance officers made it into the beam to lead to the Citadel and it seemed to be over.

It however was not as both Anderson and Shepard, horribly scarred, burned, bleeding, and in immense pain were in the ruins of the Citadel, already abandoned by those who lived there once. The smell of death and destruction filled the place as both of them made it to where the Crucible would be. But they were soon met by the now fully indoctrinated Illusive Man, still believing that the Reapers could be controlled and humanity would be on top as he immobilized them both. Anderson tried to convince the man otherwise, but paid for his defiance by being shot by Shepard who was controlled by him. Shepard however managed to strike at the Illusive Man's words by telling him that he had sacrificed too much and has now lost whatever humanity he had left, but not all of it if he resisted. The Illusive Man agreed but pointed out he had tried it before but failed. Shepard did that for him and he looked at Earth one last time and Shepard himself spoke his last words with his mentor who finally died before him, but not before asking for Kahlee to forgive him for no longer being able to come back.

…

The League watched as Shepard spoke to the Catalyst as they discussed the fact that the Illusive Man was right that controlling the Reapers was possible but he could not do it for he was already controlled by the Reapers. They also spoke of the true mission of the Reapers, and they were unable to speak in shock at the truth of why the Reapers had been harvesting the races that went before everyone else.

The mission of the Reapers was disturbing and horrible as it stripped away hope for a future from them, rendering them as nothing more than merely pawns. And Shepard's arguments made sense to them. But when they learned that all life had hope as Shepard stood in the Crucible as the only organic to make it this far, they wondered just what was it he was going to do. And when they heard of his options, they could not help but wonder what Dylan chose in what were his final moments.

What Dylan did filled them with amazement and shock as he walked towards the massive energy beam. They knew there and then that Dylan made the choice to allow his very form to be used as the catalyst for Synthesis to break the cycle and show to the Reapers that their mission was no longer necessary. But not only that, his actions would give the future to the races who lived in the galaxy. They watched as Shepard leaped into the beam and through his eyes, they saw his last memories as a living being of his friends, his mentor, and the women who were very close to his heart.

Afterwards, they were allowed to see the meeting between the Reapers that still functioned, their creator the Catalyst, and what they had done for Shepard. They watched as he was literally brought back from death and given a new chance for life…and how he had landed into their reality.

…

"And afterwards, I came to this Earth and found out about the ongoing invasion, and you all know the rest. That's my story."

As soon as Dylan was done with his story, he looked at EDI and spoke as well.

"EDI, do you mind if we can have some drinks brought in, talking that long was pretty tiring."

EDI nodded in response to her commander's request.

"At once Commander, excuse me."

The heroes themselves were still trying to wrap their minds around what they had been told. Had they not been able to see all records of the battles, and J'onn confirming every part of the story to be true, they would have found it very hard to swallow. And considering all of their experiences, that in itself was saying something. Before them was not a normal man, but a living legend who by all rights had cheated death not once but twice. And he had done something that was undeniably impressive, he had defied a massive race of sentient machines that had taken out entire civilizations, stopped them a second time from creating that monstrosity from the many humans that the Collectors had taken. And for the third and final time, rallied EVERY galactic civilization into one unified fleet to fight the Reapers in what was a powerful show of hope, defiance, courage and faith .

And he had willingly sacrificed himself to save all sentient beings by making all of them into a new life form that would render the cycle that the Reapers impose on the galaxy irrelevant. He had given up himself to save his world and he had succeeded, and now he had been given what would be considered as a second chance at life…here in this universe of theirs.

…

Superman could not help but feel a great sense of respect for Shepard as he had done so much for his people and all of the races in his galaxy. The fact that he had done most of this through hard work, sweat and blood was very respectful and utterly impressive to the Kryptonian. He had no doubt in his mind that Shepard had made his family proud many times over and while the stress and hardship he had to deal with was very high, the fact he held on and endured no matter what happened was also highly admirable. There was no doubt in the Man of Steel's mind that he would make a very powerful addition to the League, him and EDI as well. The fact that he also managed to create such a force from so many different diverse beings who made up his crews told Clark that he could help keep the League strong.

…

Batman himself was still trying to picture all of the things that Shepard had done ever since he had enlisted in the Alliance after the deaths of his family and friends. The event that led to the death of his family had some similarities to his own, but in every sense was different as he had been eight when Dylan was a sixteen year old teenager. He could help but be impressed that Dylan had been able to stand up and fight after seeing the things he did. And uniting such a group of people from different races to fight such a massive galactic threat was to him a sign of a truly gifted man. And most all, uniting every race from every corner of the galaxy to face the Reapers, such a feat would have been seen as impossible, but he did it. He might not approve of Dylan's fighting methods, but there was no doubt in his mind that if things were really desperate, then he was a man he wanted on his side.

…

John Stewart could not help but be silent as he took in all that he had learned of Dylan. He had once distrusted him and considered him a hotshot rookie with no idea what it meant to do a job of protecting people. But that idea was sunk fast when he had seen him in action and also now saw his history. Here was a man who as a kid lost his whole family, vowed never to let it happen again, train his ass off to be the best and eventually save an entire city on his own in what would have been one serious mess. He got the highest award and became one of the first human Spectres in his world's history and had done so much for his people and all other beings. Considering all he had been through and despite being ignored and shunned until it was too late, he never for one second gave up and eventually united what would be easily seen as the largest and finest military force seen anywhere. And then he gave up his life willingly to end a cycle of death and extinction to give ALL life a new chance to forge their future on their own terms.

The former Marine could not help but feel respect for the man and had he been in the Marine Corps he should have been promoted to General by now, or rather Admiral if he had been in the Navy here in this reality. Hell he would have made one heck of Lantern had it not been for his willingness to use lethal force if all else failed.

(If he had been born here and ever became a Lantern, I'd have to work my ass off to come even within a hair's width of what he would do.)

…

J'onn was silent for a moment or two but his thoughts towards the man was obvious. He had to admire Dylan for everything that he had done for his species and he had been only a young man who had survived a raid that cost him his family. The Martian could not help but feel a kinship with the man as he was the last of his family, just as he was the last of his own family and species and despite the differences between them, the Martian still felt that bond between him and the Spectre. He had sacrificed much to ensure that the Imperium would never awaken and harm other beings and now he and the others here had beaten them and sent them running. Dylan however had done something that he could not imagine doing. And that was fighting such a deadly threat as the Reapers and their mission to harvest all life in a completely inhumane way of preserving life in a cold and unfeeling fashion. He did it without fail despite the disbelief and more thrown at him by others and uniting all species from every corner of the galactic community into one mighty fleet to finally fight back and win. And the most powerful thing that earned the Martian's respect was his willingness to sacrifice himself and die for a second time to finally give ALL life a fresh start even if it meant never coming back home to his friends and family.

Dylan in J'onn's mind was more than a man, he was a legend who deserved to be recognized and he would not mind having such a person fighting alongside him.

…

Hawkgirl was in a bit of a bind as she looked at the man before her. She had a secret mission for her people the Thanagarians and it was the reason she came to Earth. That reason was to help them end the war with their long time foes the Gordians and she was to be the scout for it. She had never expected to be roped into fighting an alien invasion with people like these. But meeting someone like Dylan Shepard was the last thing she had expected as well. He was no ordinary man in any stretch of the imagination/

He reminded her of her long time love Hro Talak who was dedicated to the defense of their people just as she was, and as dedicated as Dylan was to his own people. But Hro had never managed to go and do the things Shepard had done, especially uniting all the known races of his reality into one massive force that literally dwarfed the stars. And while he would use all options he could get to end a conflict with peaceful means as a Spectre, she had no doubt that if all else failed; he would show a ruthless and no nonsense side to doing his job. He would no doubt become a living force of destruction, and the proof of such a view was there for her to see with the many enemies he had killed personally in battle.

He was one person she would not wish to face in combat as an enemy.

(Thankfully my people don't plan to harm the people of this world.)

She had no idea how wrong she was going to be in the near future.

…

Diana could not help but look at the Spectre with respect, sympathy, and admiration. The first was due to his many actions that had shown to her that he was a man who was truly unlike any other person in the world. She could see why so many beings he had worked with had willingly followed him even into the very heart of death itself and such leadership was truly worthy of her respect. Her feeling of sympathy was due to the tragedy of losing his family and friends to such people who treated others as animals. It reminded her of the stories her mother told of how her fellow Amazons in their past lives had been treated by men, but to hear it from a man was different as she could tell that the pain of the lose still bit deeply into him.

She also felt sympathy for Dylan due to the sacrifices he had made to save his own reality. Being forced to leave the first love of his life on that world to die was not an easy thing for anyone. This Ashley Williams must have really been a strong and brave woman to have willingly accepted the call her loved one made, and even forgave him for what he had to do to save their people from the threats before it. Next were the lose of his fellow crew, the fact that he could not live a new life with this Miranda Lawson who he loved and eventually his willingness to die a second time to save all life in his galaxy.

Such selflessness was something her people had thought would never be seen in men but she could see it in this man. And that was where the admiration came in, if there were men like this in her mother's time, would her people have taken a less severe view towards those of the male gender? Those thoughts were in her mind as she hoped that his time with them in the League was going to be worth every second.

…

Flash himself was silent for a second or two, a area thing considering who he was, but it did not take long for him to speak his own thoughts.

"You know something, I personally feel that having you and EDI in the League is going to be worth it. Considering what you all have done, if the whole world or the whole galaxy was about to go mad, I'd rather have you two watching my back Shepard."

The former Alliance Marine and Citadel Spectre looked at the speedster seriously and replied.

"You sure about that Flash considering what I have done?"

"Yeah, I mean you've managed to do things no one would ever think in their lives is possible. Hell uniting an ENTIRE galaxy's worth of races into one massive force to fight a threat like those Reapers even after all the obstacles and crap before you is an achievement I doubt anyone here can claim to do…no offense to present company of course."

Superman smiled a bit at that and had to admit that Flash did have a point, he had done a lot of things in his life as a hero, but Dylan's actions were pretty impressive.

"Flash has a point, as far as I can see, having you and EDI in the League is a good move. Your skills, abilities, technology and more can be a real boost to what we have to deal with on Earth and outside of it. Your accomplishments make you more than a hero, you're a legend."

Dylan shook his head at that and replied.

"I was just a man who cared for those close to him, and willing to do whatever he could to protect them. And I knew the cost if I ever failed them and what I would lose, so despite my powers and whatnot, I am just a man doing his job. And I had good crews by my side; I could never have done all of those things on my own."

"Those are the very same reasons you are a hero and why I personally feel that having you and EDI in this League is a wise move that all of us can make. The fact that you remain very grounded despite all you have done is further proof that you are more than a regular man. After all I have seen you do Dylan, the faith your crew, old and new showed you is well deserved."

Batman and the others nodded with Diana smiling a bit more as Dylan thought over the offer as EDI presented drinks to the League, they took it ad Dylan drank his own glass of cool water. He thought it over a bit more and decided to test the waters a bit.

"You all should know that despite the fact that I do believe in resolving conflict with words first and exercise all options before using lethal force, if I see that there is no other option, I will not hesitate to use force. That might be seen as wrong by you and the public and that can cause a lot of trouble that I feel this League does not need. And you have seen me willing to be ruthless when I have to be as a Spectre to do my job, are you all willing to accept that?"

The heroes looked at one another and John replied.

"You got a point there, but you yourself said that you can decide for yourself when you have to be ruthless. As long as you know when to be ruthless I think we can avoid that from happening."

"And if it does happen?"

Superman then spoke next seriously/

"Then we'll do our best to find out how it came to it and also see if it was the right course of action. After all you have done to defend all life in your reality Dylan, it would be an insult to do anything less."

Seeing that they were really serious about having him join the League, and seeing that he could do some good here, Dylan gave his answer to the question of him joining this League.

"All right, I accept the offer, but first I need to set up shop, and I already have a place in mind."

…

Five months later in a farm in Texas…

Dylan sighed as he walked into the field and began to check on the vegetables that he was growing in his vegetable garden as night began to creep over his place as afternoon began to come to an end. He looked at the field and thought back on how he managed to get the place that he was now in here in Texas. He had managed t find some left over supplies of the minerals and E-zero that he had been able to harvest on his previous campaign against the Collectors. The supplies were not as much as they had been before when the Alliance took over the Normandy and rebuilt it, as well as send the bulk of them to other needs but there was enough for him use as a means to get funds.

He had sold a portion the supplies of platinum, palladium, and iridium to the owner of the Watch Tower with the aid of Batman, one Bruce Wayne and since the supplies were of a very high quality, they were going to get him a good deal of funding. The only resource he was not going to sell was the small piles of E-zero that was left. These were possibly the few supplies of E-zero that was left and he was not going to let them go to waste, though he did hope that in this world, there would be something that was the equivalent of E-zero. Getting the other supplies was fairly simple enough as he could just mine asteroids to find them and then mine them for use.

Once he had gotten an ample supply of funds, the Spectre worked on getting an identity forged for him and Batman was willing to help him out. It took a while but he was soon able to get himself an actual birth certificate and citizenship papers for the US. He then had EDI fly over the US to locate a viable place to set up shop and call it home, all under stealth mode of course. He and the A.I soon found a good place for them to set up and here he was.

He underwent the same procedures in buying the land he had found to be worth it and when he underwent all the paperwork, he had his house build there and here it was. The house was built to the style of most houses and had itself connected to the public power supply, telephone, television, and water utilities. So he had to pay taxes still to the government, it was not a problem for him since he was willing to go through with it. That way it had a state of normalcy and he was more comfortable in the countryside than cities all the time.

He smiled sadly at that as he knew that he was still a country bumpkin at heart, or so his dad used to phrase it.

…

Of course he did have secrets underneath the house itself, something that he had made in secret with the aid of EDI. In the bottom of his basement was a military grade bunker with a hidden electrical generator that relied on Helium 3 to power the whole bunker, inside was an armory where he stored some of his weapons from the Normandy as well as a large stockpile of thermal clips, and also several of his Armors, including a Predator H set of Heavy Armor that had been his favored armor when he had hunted Saren, but had lost in the destruction of the first Normandy. There was a built in communications system that used the same system as was used by the Illusive Man back on the Normandy, and this was connected to the Watch Tower as well to provide him with direct links to the others in the tower. He also had a connection to the internet and he used a standalone server to avoid revealing himself to the others in the web, something he planned to avoid. That also included TV and radio so he could keep up to current events, all of which was routed to him via the Normandy\s own systems.

There was also a replication of his sleeping quarters from the Normandy there and also supplies of running water that could be recycled and reused many times. And naturally there was a kitchen and food storage are there for him to stock up on food if he had to be in the bunker. And of course was a shower and bathroom. He also had a training area and a shooting range to keep sharp.

To lock down the place, he used the Prothean Language alphabet into the keypad, and he was thankful that he had the Prothean cipher still wired into his brain. The security also included DNA, retinal, fingerprint, and biometric security links to keep the place locked down. The others in the League had come to his house before and they were impressed by how it looked and Superman commented that it was certainly roomy and felt nice. The only tradeoff was that it would not allow him and anyone else to leave if the house and the bunker itself was on lockdown if a natural disaster happened and had not passed. After all, he was living in a state of the US that was in Tornado alley.

Diana did ask if he was the only resident here since she suspected that it might look strange, but he assured her and them that he was not alone. EDI was with him and she came to them in a specially made disguise that made her look human. It was no simple disguise though as the flesh and hair felt absolutely real and could actually sweat and move like the real deal.

It was something that surprised the League until EDI explained that this was the very same disguise and body used by her…mother, the previous EDI who had downloaded herself in a gynoid body. The technical details was only grasped by both Batman and J'onn, with Superman coming a close second. All in all, the disguise matched the human body in all aspects and EDI could control the hair color as well as her eyes, this allowed her to blend in very well with others. That also meant that Flash was very impressed and had once more flirted with the A.I, much to Shepard's amusement and Superman while the others merely sighed and groaned at that.

EDI explained that she was playing the role of Shepard's cousin on his father's side with the name Elaine Deckard Iverson. She had already created her own profile and disseminated it to the public database. There it was stated that since they both had lost their families and they had no other relatives to speak of, they decided to live together and work on the farm that Dylan had bought. It was a bit odd, but with the world still reeling from the invasion, it was acceptable, and both EDI and Dylan were ready to come up worth back stories if they were questioned further in detail.

As he thought about what this would mean to him in the long run while he was on this world, the Spectre and former Alliance NV Marine also thought about the people he was now going to be working with. He could only hope that his decision to be part of this team would bear fruit, and he wondered just what the reaction of his former crew would be if they discovered he was working with such a bunch.

…

Garrus would have laughed his head off somewhat, while smirking in the Turian fashion. He would then ask if he still had a slot open for his long time team mate. Plus he would have given Flash the evil eye and more if he caught him trying to make out with Tali.

Liara would have mentioned that she was impressed that he was working with such a unique bunch. And she would be willing to work with that.

Kaiden would have laughed a bit and said that his former Commanding officer had a hell of a way of working with a new group and if he had a slot there.

Grunt would have been eager to test himself against the League to see if they were as worthy as he was and the others of the Normandy Clan that he worked with to work with his Battlemaster.

Miranda would have been very curious about them but still as wary as ever, namely giving the female members of the League a veiled warning to leave him be and she was with him as well so they had better not get any funny ideas. Bit of a stretch, but given their history together, he had no doubt that it could happen.

Zaeed would have called them a bunch of super powered pansies for their morals though the merc's time with him would have softened him a bit. Plus he would have loved to see how capable Stewart was.

Kasumi would have tried to be friendly with the two female members of the League and also begin to see if she could steal from the people. Plus she might very well start flirting with them. In her customary fashion which included pilfering their items and leaving roses behind.

Tali would have been curious about their abilities and also be curious about the technology in the Watch Tower. That and she would also want to take a look at how they were able to function their whole civilization without E-sero. That along with the fact she would threaten to shove her Combat Drone's weapons or her Shotgun into Flash's face if he tried to get fresh with her.

He had no doubt that the very second Flash saw Miranda, Samara, Liara, Jack, or Kasumi he would start flirting with them the very second he got. He could wager a guess on the outcome if the flirt did try that to the women in question. And he had a very good idea what Garrus would have done to Flash had he caught him flirting with Tali had his Quarian friend removed her face mask and hood.

Wrex would have also been curious to see just how capable the League were and see if they had what it took to work with him considering his penchant for getting into problems of the galactic proportion types.

Jacob would have busted a gut in laughter for a moment or two at the outlandish looks and then get back to being professional and see if he could actually outfit the group with some decent armor and weapons. The former Marine might get along with Stewart but that caould backfire if Stewart found out Jacob used to work for Cerberus.

Jack would have laughed her butt off and give the men of the group a once over while snorting at Batman and Superman. She might have mellowed out last time he had seen her, but she was still not into those authority types. But she probably would have enjoyed herself teasing the guys while giving the universal 'Kiss my ass' greeting to Stewart had the former Marine tried to discipline her. That or give him a Biotic kick in the nuts.

Javik would have wondered just what they were able to do and how they would stake up to his former crew and the Normandy crew. The last Prothean would have enjoyed seeing how they fought and would have enjoyed the discussion with both J'onn and Superman as they all were technically the last of their species.

Vega would have been eager to test himself alongside them and also hang out with Flash and Stewart. The man was a gung ho Marine and someone Dylan respected a great deal and was proud to have worked with him in the battles that were to come.

Samara would have been impressed by the League's ideals as it would be similar to the Justicar Code and would have wished to see them in action. Though she would not have appreciated it had Flash attempted to get to know her in a less than friendly fashion. One thing he learned when he and Samara had been 'flirting' as it were, was that she did not take too kindly to those who had less than pure thoughts about her people, namely her unless she trusted them enough.

…

As for his deceased crew members…Ash would have loved to see how they all would fare in the battles she had been part of, and also would have been in a bit of a contest to see who had more skills. Mordin would have talked to the League non stop to learn all he could, he certainly would have compared the Green Lantern Corps with the Salarian STG and the Citadel Spectres, and he would have bent Diana's ears trying to understand why she was who she was. Legion would have been very interested to learn what he could about this new band of beings who were organic, and he would have been interested to meet any other synthetic life forms in this reality. Thane would have been interested to learn about them and also help them clean up the world with his skills, though he doubted that the League would be too keen in the idea of having someone like Thane on their side.

And overall, this new team he was with were going to be definitely different from what he was used to. In his first time as a Spectre, he dealt with a fairly simple band of people despite being unique. The second time when he came back to life, he dealt with one hell of a group of people with all manner of baggage. And the third, he led members of his old and new team in one final war. Working with the League was going to be definitely different and interesting, and he soon packed up and head back in to have dinner.

EDI was currently working on some calculations on the table in the living room as he had good and functional yet comfortable sets of furniture as he got ready to eat. Since EDI had no need for food and drink and only needed to power down for some maintenance work, he decided to make the most of the food that he was going to eat. There was still the matter of his place's house warming party though that could wait as he knew that the League still had things to do in their respective cities.

…

However, it seemed that he was not going to be alone for a while as EDI spoke to him just as he was about to have dinner.

"Commander, it seems we have a guest."

"Anyone we know of EDI?"

"Yes, it appears we are being visited by Diana herself."

Dylan was surprised by that as he had not expected Diana to be coming here to this place of his. She along with the others knew already of his location of his home base on Earth yet he had not gotten a call that she was coming. He moved to the door and opened it to see Diana land there on the porch and he moved forward to greet the Amazon. It was not that being visited by the super powered Amazon princess was a bad thing, in fact, most guys would love the idea. But he was curious on what brought her out here?.

"Diana, it's good to see you here but I have to ask what brings you here?"

The dark haired and blue eyed woman smiled in greeting and replied.

"I am pleased to see that your house is done, and I apologize if I did not mention that I was arriving. I came here to see how you were doing here in this land called…Texas is it?"

"Yeah, I like being a farmer and it actually helps me relax and remember the good times. You can take the farmer from the land, but you can never take the farmer out of the man, as my dad used to say."

Diana nodded and spoke next to him.

"You remember your home of Mindoir being here?"

Dylan sighed a bit at that as he looked at the fields as night began to take over the place and replied.

"Yeah, it was not easy but it makes me feel more relaxed. Besides, being a farmer is not a bad occupation and it helps keep my true identity a secret. Plus Texas has it's fair share of criminals and types of crime so I doubt that things are going to be always quiet here. Anyway, I think it's best that we both should have dinner."

The two walked back and Dylan decided to start cooking some extra food and he was soon supported by Diana who wanted to help him. He did not refused and he was soon sitting next to Diana on his dining table and enjoying some salad, fresh fruits, some cooked beef in hot gravy and some sour dough bread. Diana enjoyed the food and as soon as they were done, she decided to state just what she was doing here.

"I decided to come here since I was still not sure of where I wish to take residence in Man's world. I was wondering if you do not mind if you can offer your opinion on where it would be best that I can settle in."

"You're asking me that?"

"Yes I have knowledge of the world from the libraries of my homeland, but it has been quite some time since my sisters and I had ever landed on another island, so the knowledge might be no longer up to date. And I have already seen that the world we left behind in the past has changed considerably and so it might not be the same that we left behind. I could settle in with the others in the League, but I feel that it would be intruding on their homes."

Dylan thought the whole thing over and try to come up with a good way to help Diana in settling in with the world of men. She was pretty much the proverbial fish out of water, or to be more accurate in her case, the naive princess who just left the island. The question on where she could set up was not yet answered until he decided to try an idea.

"You can set up here in Texas actually. While not as diverse as some cities like San Francisco, Los Angeles, or New York, the cities here such as San Antonio, Dallas, and do have a good deal of diversity in culture and society. Plus you can bet that things here are going to be rather interesting here as well."

Diana thought it over and she had to admit that seeing the land of Texas was a good thing as it was rather wild looking yet having a beauty that she admired due to her life on a paradise like Themyscira. The fact that the land was also open to nature meant that she could connect to the Earth and it would help in her use of her powers. And in some ways it would be a good place for her to start to get to know Man's world more.

"That seems wise, though I must admit that I will need a place to stay."

Dylan thought about it and then replied.

"You could stay here and we can come up with an identity cover for you. it would be a bit odd at first but so far I think this would be a better move and if can also help you earn funding while here if you have a job of sorts."

"Is that required in Man's world?"

The former Alliance Marine and Spectre scratched the back of his head as he thought of a good answer to the question directed at him and answered the question.

"It would actually, considering the fact you were in the news with us in fighting the Imperium everyone would know about you. That is, your super hero identity and while you can learn a lot about the world as you are…you might need to disguise yourself in order to learn about the more hidden aspects of society. Plus if you do have a civilian identity to use, some work would be nice since doing nothing can raise suspicions. Though how am I going to explain having two attractive women in my home if people see this is going to be a stretch."

The Amazon raised an eyebrow at that though not in offense, she was blessed with very strong beauty and form after all so she was used to it. But to here a man comment on her looks was a bit new to her. She actually thought any man would be pleased to have such company in their home as per what she learned, though she kept in mind that Dylan Shepard was not like most men.

"How is that going to be a problem?"

"Well, gossip has a way of making one's life miserable if done in a negative fashion. And while I have managed to make EDI's cover story stick thus far, you can bet that you being a new arrival might cause some tongues to wag. Not that I personally have anything against having you here Diana to be honest, it's just that in order to keep people from finding out about us being part of the League, when in civilian guise is a must. Since if the bad guys found out who we were in civilian garb, there is no telling if and when they will hit us."

"You did not have those kinds of problems before Dylan."

Dylan laughed a bit at that as he replied.

"That was because back there in my reality Diana, I was the War Hero of Elysium, of Eden Prime, and eventually the first human Spectre in the galaxy so my profile was pretty well known to everyone in the know. Here in this reality, none of the people and beings I knew of exists and the same goes for me as well so I am pretty much a Spectre, a dead being so having a civilian identity is a certainly useful advantage. Plus it can be considered strange if two people are living together under the same roof and are not related in any way. They might think you and me if they see us in civilian garb as an item."

Wonder Woman was confused by that and Dylan could see it easily and could not help but recall that Diana was still innocent in the ways of the world of men and modern society in general.

"What exactly is that term 'item' for?"

"It's a term used to describe a man and woman who are in a relationship, and the kind of relationship that is not in the least bit the same as the relationship between friends and colleagues."

Diana now got that and could not help but be a bit shocked by that and a slight blush was there as she was quick to grasp the implications that she now understood.

"Oh! I see, well that might be a bit of a problem then. But I have a feeling that you and EDI can make a plan for that particular situation."

Dylan nodded and EDI came in as soon as she heard her name being mentioned and agreed to provide what help she could for the Amazon Princess. Diana and Dylan talked a bit more about what they had to do to help her adjust to the world of Man. The discussion also moved to how she would be able to stay in the house and it was decided that a secondary wing of the house would soon be made and would be where Diana could stay. And also the establishment of a cover story for the Amazon princess. Both Dylan and EDI were very serious in the planning since they wanted to make sure that Diana was both comfortable and well provided with the means to do what she can to learn Man's world.

These actions actually endeared both Shepard and EDI to Diana and she was hoping to make sure that her actions would be able to repay the two heroes. And she planned to make sure that she was going to be able to do things to make herself useful as despite being a Princess back home, she was still an Amazon. And as an Amazon, she was not going to make it seem that she was not going to contribute her fair share of effort and hard work to a task.

One thing was sure, the world was going to be changed soon, and the League along with Dylan Shepard and EDI were going to be deep in it.

…

To be continued…

…

Author's Notes:

Well, that wraps up this chapter and I am happy that this story is still alive and kicking, and now I have chosen a nice place for Shepard to bury his roots, and that is Texas. Why is that? Remember that Dylan Shepard is a colonist and his home on Mindoir happened to be a farming location alongside several others when the Batarians hit it in their slave raids.

I had been to Texas before due to some of my relatives residing there and I feel that it would be a good place for him to set up. That and he will be dealing with the criminal elements there as well. The drug wars in Texas is about to get a lot more complicated with the appearance of EDI and Dylan. But this time, I have decided to have Wonder Woman settle in Texas as well, most of the time she is usually in the cities and while she will be in the cities in Texas from time to time, there will be moments that she is in the countryside as well to spice things up as well.

How will the people of Texas handle the fact that they will now have two members of the League set up on their area of the country?

…

I know this chapter is long and only focuses on filling in the details of Shepard's life and some would find it unneeded, but it had to be done since he is an unknown to the League. I have no doubt that sooner or later I might get grilled

Now I have recently gotten a chance to look at the poll I made and damn…Zatanna and Wonder Woman are very much moving ahead of the pack. It's a neck to neck race between both women and after seeing them in their various DCAU incarnations and their mainstream comic book forms, I have to admit that the competition is pretty understandable. Now I have decided that in order to round up this number, I will have to make a move and include another person in the League to even it up.

You all can guess who that would be, and you can bet it would make sense. I have already looked at the League carefully and noted that they do not have anyone who is dedicated to the magical arts with the marked exception of Diana. But in Diana's case, she hardly uses magic so I figured having Zatanna join the League full time is a better move. It's still an experimental idea but no sense trying it out when I can.

…

Anyway, for the benefit of the readers, due to some noises and instances on my PC that are less than helpful, I have to take my PC for cleaning and maintenance. That means that I might go dark again since the cleaning might take a while. I might get some flak about it but keep in mind that I will not be able to write anything if this computer breaks down.

See you soon!


	4. Not a chapter

Hell readers, I know that normally you would be expecting a new chapter update, but this is obviously not one of them. I right now I have good news and bad news.

Bad news first since it has to be squared away so we can get to the good news. Just yesterday afternoon here in my side of the world, I received the scan warning of my PC that my hard drive has finally become bad and failure is imminent. I have been hearing weird noises from my HD for some time and after having it diagnosed, my cousin finally confirmed that it is reaching the end of it's ability to function. And now that day has come so now I have to either have it replaced or repaired.

And considering the fact that it's an older HDD model, I am not sure if it can be repaired, I will ask my cousin if he can try to repair it but if it is not salvageable then I have no other option but to buy a new one. And considering my family's current finances which is not too good but not too bad either, it might take a while. So that means my PC is dead in the water

Now the good news, I have managed to back up all my files prior to the collapse of the HD in my USB devices so it's not a total loss. I will find a way to upload all my recently updated non Halo files into the site and continue there until I solve my hard drive problem. If that works out, then I will be able to still update my work so it will not be long before I continue. So if you see a new update after this message is sent, then you will know that I am still alive and kicking.

Just to be clear, all Halo stories are still on ice so don't ask me about them. I will unfreeze them when I have done what I want with the non Halo ones. And the non Halo stories will still be updated whenever possible so don't worry about them.

…

I know this is not what anyone wants, but it was bound to happen eventually so I have to make the most of it.

See you all soon.


	5. Trials of a Lantern Part 1

Justice League: Spectre

Disclaimer: I do not own anything related to Justice League and Mass Effect so don't bother asking…

Chapter 3

Part 1

Trials of a Lantern…

( ) :Thoughts

…

San Antonio…

Dylan was currently moving through the city and paying a visit to none other than the Alamo, a coupe of years ago, prior to him graduating from his N7 training, he had looked over the history of the Alamo. And he was naturally honored by the actions taken by the brave men who made their last stand there in the old missionary compound. He personally had not gone to his world's Alamo as the city had been under siege by the Reapers and he had no knowledge of what happened to the monument after the invasion of Earth, his Earth, and had not heard anything afterwards during the war with the Reapers.

As he left the tour group, he decided to enjoy the fresh air and also the look of the city and see if he could meet up with Diana who was currently on the other side of the ancient fort. The princess was very interested in seeing this place. It did not take long for him to find Diana as she was looking at the diorama of the last days of the defenders of the Alamo and what they did prior to them finally being overrun. The princess was naturally being looked at by a horde of men, unmarried and even married, some women were also staring at the dark haired beauty, some in envy and others with a different purpose.

Dylan did not have any problems with the women looking at Diana, even those of that preference since he had no issue with them, heck two of his former female friends back on Mindoir, Valerie and Kayla were in a relationship. He also had a feeling that considering where she had been born and how she had been raised, Diana was quite comfortable with the idea of women looking at her, and possibly being attracted.

As for the men, he could understand the staring, even he stared at her in appreciation for her beauty, but unlike the men, he already knew who she was and she was capable of doing so he knew better. Diana had the ability to match Superman in combat and that meant she had more than enough strength to really hurt someone. He wouldn't feel sorry for any perverted man who tried to get fresh with the Amazon princess who was an ally of his. But he still had to make sure that Diana did not reveal too much of herself.

He ignored the glares he got from the men as he walked over to Diana who was currently wearing comfortable jeans, comfortable boots that she had been given by EDI, and a long sleeved white collar shirt. She had worn her hair in a different manner which was as a long ponytail with two tails framing the sides of her face. It was a bit of a risk, but the disguise, regardless of being considered flimsy, was working as none of the people had recognized Diana to be Wonder Woman. The Greek woman looked at the images carefully, taking in every detail she could see from the recreation as he spoke.

"How do you find the Alamo so far Diana?"

Diana turned and spoke with a level of respect to the man while looking over the building she was in.

"It's a very solemn place, I was able to read on what happened here, namely to the men who stayed behind, even at the face of so many enemies. This was just like what happened to the Spartans at Thermopylae."

"I see, you sound like you had respect for the Spartans Diana, not to sound offensive or anything, but that kind of sounds strange considering what you told me of your people."

Diana did not show any offense as there was truth to that statement. Many of her sisters, if not all of them had a dislike for men, or at times hatred and for reasons she knew of all too well. But there were naturally some exceptions in their dislike for men though such people were very few and rather hard to find in this day and age.

"It does not offend me that you would think so, but we did respect the Spartans since despite their love for warfare and their ways of training, they did give women great freedoms and rights. Not many Greek nations in the past did the things the Spartans did and thus for their way of treating women was respected by our people. That and their combat prowess was also worthy of respect by our sisters."

"I see, and what the Spartans did at Thermopylae, the men under Colonel Travis did the same here in the Alamo. They might have died but they made the armies of Santa Ana pause and eventually they helped rally all of their fellow Texans to fight as one. There's another place called Goliad as well with the same events as the Alamo, you want to visit that soon?"

Diana smiled and nodded as both of them left the area to see the rest of the city. And naturally there were a lot of people looking at the pair. Diana noticed that and she was not surprised by the way men looked at her, and the same would be said for the women. She was not uncomfortable with such things due to her upbringing back on her home of Themyscira. She was not the only one getting stared at though as Dylan himself was being looked over by the people who were also nearby . However, it was at this moment that the cellphone that was conditioned to receive calls from EDI came up.

Shepard took up the cell-phone and soon he was greeted by the sound of EDI talking.

"Commander, we have a situation concerning the Border Patrol."

"What kind of situation?"

"A number of their agents were on an operation to take out a suspected cartel owned warehouse filled with illegal substances, but it turned out to be a trap set up the cartel. They have been cut off from backup for a while now and while air support has arrived, it is not armed and the agents are being pinned down and some have been wounded."

Dylan Shepard looked at Diana and that was not lost to the Amazon as she knew that they now had to deal with the threat of these cartels. She had been told of the dangers the Cartels posed to people in terms of their use of drugs, smuggling illegal goods, weapons, and worse of all to her, the exploitation of people of any age or gender. When Dylan explained just what the Cartels did to people, even children she was outraged by it and was ready to deal with them.

…

Elsewhere…

"GET DOWN!"

The shout was made as more bullets came down overhead as the Border Patrol agents were caught in the crossfire. They had been lured into a trap when they got false intel of a large stash of drugs being stored in a warehouse not less than an hour or so ago. Once they got there, they tried to locate the drugs and enter the compound, they came in and when they came closer to the drug packets, it was when one of them spotted something odd. And sure enough, it turned out that the drug packets were all fake, filled with nothing more than ground sand…and explosives!

The Border Patrol agents managed to get away but two of their companion agents were killed in the blast. And when they got out…that was when the Cartel members attacked them. Three went down dead and four were badly wounded, they managed to bring the wounded to safety but now they were in a protracted firefight with the attackers. They had no idea why the Cartel would willingly attack their agents but it was clear that with the amount of fire power they had, the agents intended to kill them all. It would take time to have backup…time they did not have right now as they had few heavier grade weapons with them.

One of the Cartel moved forward to attack with two more behind him, all three being supported by their companions. The agents could not fire back right now as the ones in the rear were laying it on them hard and so were the three coming in at the front. But then just as the Cartel member moved in to fire with his Assault Rifle, there was a streak of something that came and hit the guy right in the leg, and another on both legs. The man dropped down and howled in pain as he dropped his weapon and held both his legs.

Another man tried to come in, only to suddenly be lassoed by what appeared to be some kind of…golden rope and was soon taken away into the air. The people who saw that were stunned somewhat and even more so when the man was suddenly sent down to ground in a heap, alive, but obviously sporting some serious bruising, no doubt being beaten to a pulp by whoever had that rope.

They wondered just was going on until two people came in, or rather one came in on foot while the other flew in.

The Cartel soldiers looked at Dylan who was aiming his M-8 Avenger at them while wearing his now dessert camouflaged Kassa Fabrications N7 Armor while wearing his Death Mask Helmet. They had not expected to encounter someone like him and even more so when Wonder Woman appeared in full gear and glaring at them. The two heroes were also being looked at by the Border Patrol members who were pinned down by the Cartel soldiers, they had not expected this and their air support was also showing that very same level of surprise as the two heroes looked at their enemies.

Dylan was naturally the one to speak first, with his Death Mask Helmet amplifying his voice as he spoke in Mexican to the cartel members. He had received training in languages back in the Academy and naturally that included languages back on Earth.

"I'd stand down if I were you."

The leader of the bunch swore at the pair and spoke in Mexican to both Dylan and Diana.

"Who the hell are you two?"

"The name's Spectre to you, and this is Wonder Woman, we managed to intercept this plan of your to execute these Border Patrol group for messing up your business. You're not going to get that chance."

"And who is going to stop us, you and the lady in all that armor? We're going to kill these idiots and then you both! Who knows, we might even have some fun with your little dark haired lady when we're done showing her who's boss."

Dylan looked briefly to see that Diana's eyes were hard now and the tenseness in her form was enough to tell him that she was now ready for a fight. He smiled at this and spoke once more to the leader of the cartels.

"I'd rethink that statement you know, she's not going to take kindly to what you just said."

The man sneered at Shepard and gave the dark haired Amazon a leering look as all sorts of less than pure thoughts were in his head.

"I don't think she even knows what I am saying, don't you lady?"

Diana replied, in flawless Mexican as she had been given some reading materials by both Dylan and EDI when she set up with them. This was done so if they were ever going to Mexico for a mission, she would have no problem in understanding the language. Diana revealed that she was quite capable of learning things quickly, a gift she had nurtured in her time growing up on Themyscira before going to Man's world. That was why she was considered by many back home to be able to learn very well anything that was placed before her.

"I do actually, and I would rather have my eyes torn out and be cast into Tartarus than let an insignificant worm of a man like you come anywhere near me."

THAT got the man riled up as he quickly armed the M4 at the Amazon and shouted.

"KILL THEM!"

Diana quickly blocked the bullets with her bracers and soon the cartel forces found themselves stunned as the dark haired woman managed to deflect what was a veritable barrage of bullets with only those silver bracers of hers. Diana looked at the men who were wide eyed as she placed her hands back to her hips and spoke with a confident tone in her voice.

"You were saying something about killing us and showing me who is boss?"

The men fumbled with their magazines as Diana quickly flew in and gave the first pair a beating, one had mean left hook right in the face and the other tried to hit Diana with the butt-stock of his weapon, Only for Diana to quickly grab it and then land a serious kick to his stomach, not enough to kill him, but make him literally hurl his breakfast. She then bent the weapon like it was nothing and tossed it aside just as the men managed to reload.

They were about to fire but three of them screamed in pain as Shepard was soon in the fight as he fired his fully upgraded M-8 Avenger. The screams of pain were obvious as Shepard quickly shot them in the shoulders and the middle of their right arms, along with their legs to cripple them. The mass accelerator slugs had no problem tearing through their bodies and limbs due to the sheer force imparted by them on their targets. Dylan quickly got to the wounded Border Patrol agents and soon used his Omni-Tool to release Medi-gel to heal the wounded. The people looked at him as he replied.

"Relax, I'm on your side, this will help with the injuries."

Sure enough the Medi-gel quickly kicked in and the pain suffered by the injured Border Patrol officers was soon gone. Dylan noted that and quickly joined Diana as he took down one of the cartel members who was about to take a shot at Diana with what appeared to be a high powered sniper rifle. Dylan did not hesitate at all and took out his fully upgraded M-13 Raptor with a custom Mark V Thermal Scope and Mark V Sniper Rifle Long Barrel and fired a burst right into the man's own weapon. The gun did little to block the round and the same could be said for the Kevlar vest the man had on.

"AAAAGGGG!"

The Cartel soldier shouted in pain as he fell back and Shepard turned his attention to the rest of the attackers. His action had caught the Cartel and the Border Patrol Guards by surprise as they never met any hero willing to use live rounds. The only good thing for the one Dylan shot however was that the round was not the kind that shredded once it was through the target and his shot had missed the heart and the lungs, a one in a million shot.

Diana quickly used her lasso and actually grabbed a number of weapons from the Cartel members and yanked them away from their former owners. That allowed Dylan to switch to his M-8 Avenger and fired them at the areas of the body that would cripple but not kill the Cartel members. They cried out in deep pain as the slugs had no trouble tearing through the Kevlar armor. The Spectre soon joined Diana while still moving in crisp military formation to cover the Cartel members. The Border Guards soon moved forward and were ready for a possible fight on their hands. Thankfully the two heroes had rendered the criminals who had planned to kill the agents unable to fight back.

Shepard moved to the apparent leader and spoke to him with respect in his tone.

"You're men all right sir?"

"Yeah, they are, thanks for patching us up. We never expected them to make this kind of move before, normally even the most fanatical Cartel member would be smart enough not to actively attack Border Patrol agents and risk having a full federal response force on them."

"They are heading back to Mexico then?"

"After what they did willingly to our men, they are not getting away any time soon. Still it's a damn loss for us, having some of our guys out of action. It could have been worse though, Patrick would have died if had not been for you and Wonder Woman showing up."

It did not take long for the Cartel to finally give up and they were rounded up to be brought to prison, all of them escorted by both Wonder Woman and the Spectre.

…

Two days later…

"In the latest news today in the border between Texas and Mexico, an ambush by several members of the known Muerta cartel of Border Patrol agents was foiled by the arrival of two unexpected heroes. The first is the one calling himself Spectre and the other was the female super human calling herself Wonder Woman. They were able to arrive in time as the agents were tending to their wounded and waiting for backup and soon engaged the cartel soldiers."

"The battle was quickly resolved though one Border Patrol Agent, Alex Grant was sadly lost due to severe blood loss despite attempts to resuscitate him in the field hospital. He will be given a full burial with honors for it was his sacrifice that allowed his fellow agents to seek cover when the ambush was sprung by the Cartel members. Losses were averted by the arrival of the heroes Spectre and Wonder Woman and it seems that the state of Texas may soon be given it's very own protectors."

This was being watched by the other members of the newly formed Justice League and while they were none too comfortable about what happened as Spectre's use of weapons was a bit hard for them, the fact that they had saved the lives of the wounded Border Patrol officers. At the very least, he had crippled but not killed his targets. They read the reports that the cartel members would recover after several months, and at least this attack was recorded so there would be little chance they would be acquitted in court.

Superman turned to face Dylan who currently wore his Alliance soldier uniform, even though he was technically a high ranking officer and a living legend, Shepard never saw himself as nothing more but a soldier, a soldier doing his duty to safeguard the lives of the innocent and those who wish to live and grow in peace. Clark could easily respect that and he was not alone as Bruce himself was there and the two of them had asked to speak to Dylan as well as Diana about a plan they had come up with. Flash would soon be on his way along with Hawkgirl, J'onn, and Green Lantern.

"It seems you both are getting used to the whole duty of being heroes, it's good to see."

Bruce gave a slight nod and spoke to Dylan.

"Still, you need to be cautious about how you both will act, a lot of people may like what you do as heroes, but there are just as many who may try to show you both in a negative light, or try and twist what you do."

Dylan nodded in agreement at that, due to his experiences dealing with how to convince the bull headed Councilors and others on the threats of the Reapers. He hoped that unlike last time, it was not going to take a crashing ship into the city to convince people that they were here to help them. Not to mention a certain reporter who had always tried to paint his actions in the worst possible light. Texas had been hit hard in the initial invasion and had been one of the areas he and Wonder Woman had gone to in order to rout the Imperium.

"I know, but compared to Al-Jilani, the media here are amateurs. She'd even be offended by how they act and that is saying something."

Diana nodded in agreement along with the others as they too had seen the memories Dylan had of the woman. Shaeyra shook her head at that and spoke seriously.

"I still find it hard to believe you managed to stomach all the lies she spat in your direction for so long."

"Yeah well, that's the media for you, at least Diana Allers and Emily Wong were a heck of a lot more truthful and focused on the task at hand. And at least Al-Jilani changed tunes in the end."

Superman nodded and the same could be said for Batman, Flash also commented at that with a grin.

"Yeah, but at least that Miss Wong speaks the facts, plus she's not bad looking either, but all that aside, I got to agree with Superman and Batman, since when I started out I wasn't exactly on everyone's favorites list. I finally got to be recognized in my own way but not without a LOT of hard work. You both are pretty new and the fact you use firearms advanced as they are is really going to raise eyebrows. The sooner you show you're not a bad guy in disguise the better I think, plus telling them about the League can be a good idea since it will confuse them if they see us working together."

The others nodded in agreement, even tough they were surprised that it was Flash who summed it up pretty well in his own way.

Stewart spoke next as well.

"Speedy's got a point there. Sooner or later they have to know what is going on."

Superman agreed and began to outline the plan he had in mind, EDI was nearby and also gave her own assessment.

"Superman's suggestion offers the highest chance of success as this will allow the world leaders to be assured that the League was established for good reasons. However, it will also make it clear to those who are criminals who are more than the average crook who they will be dealing with and they will be more prepared to face us. Along with part of the community of individuals who may attempt to smear and defame all of us. I also suspect that there will be concerns about individuals in areas of power that we may take advantage of our combined talents for our own means."

Batman agreed with that and so did Superman, though the latter was a bit more reluctant at that stage. Still they all decided that when they had the chance, they would announce the existence of the League to the world. It was better that they did it now than later.

…

Unknown to the others in the League, there were already a number of groups who were paying a great deal of attention to the footage.

…

Lex Luthor looked at the images of Dylan in his Collector Armor and carrying the other weapons that he had used in fighting the Imperium a few months ago. And that was mixed in with the images he had paid a tidy sum of money for to acquire. He was very impressed with the technology the man had on him and could already see vast potential in it. This kind of technology could boost Lexcorp's tech to higher levels. And no doubt these would be valuable in his long time vendetta with Superman.

He still needed to know more of the one the called the Spectre and find any weaknesses that he could exploit to make him the one to hold him by the leash. Lex prided himself on being able to get to the weaknesses of people and use them to make others do his bidding. That and his use of resources as a way to convince those who are strapped as laymen's terms went to work for him. The only one he could NOT convince was Superman.

That grated on him more times than he could count and stand, but while he did have a hatred for Superman, bordering on obsession as some would say, he did have some limits to how far his vendetta would go. But only just as he had ever y intention to finally bring Superman down and prove to all that he was more than able to handle the Man of Steel. And perhaps this Spectre's technology would be the key.

He turned to see none other than Mercy Graves walk into his office carrying a folder and when she placed it down, he spoke to her.

"What exactly have you found our new arrival, the Spectre?"

Mercy shook her head.

" Not at the moment I am afraid Lex, so far we can tell that what he looked like when he was seen with the others to fight the Imperium is different to what he wore fighting the Cartel members. That can mean that the Spectre is a human or possibly human like being wearing some form of armor."

"What about anything on his weapons?"

"They are unlike anything anyone has ever seen before, some of them believe that it might be possible that he is using something like a coil gun. The ones who we paid off in the medical coroner's office in Texas said that they had little to no luck finding any bullets."

Lex raised his eyebrow at that and spoke to his top man, or rather woman.

"Did he use lasers?"

"No Lex, the wounds were not the kind you see when hit by lasers, no burns, no nothing. The wounds they had on them were about the size of grains of sand. But so far they have no idea where the bullets are and due to the wound, the bullet possibly might have excited the bodies as well. Though the medical examiners found no exit wounds so that can be ruled out, for all we know, the rounds may still be in the cartel members he shot."

"Interesting…"

Mercy sighed a bit and Lex saw that easily and replied.

'What's the problem?"

Mercy replied to that, knowing full well Lex's reaction when a question is not answered promptly. Of course that applied to an answer that he did not like to hear.

"This Spectre's trouble Lex, he's not like Batman or Superman, call it a feeling, but watching him operate, especially when he fought the Cartel…he scares me."

"Scares you Mercy?"

That made Lex curious, Mercy was not above feeling fear, that much he knew for certain, but for her to feel fear this early towards a new arrival? That needed to be determined on the cause of her fear.

"Yeah, the way he fought with this aliens before, and with the Cartel tells me he is a professional soldier, and not afraid to use lethal force. He could have easily killed those cartel members Lex, and he would not have batted an eyelash at doing it too. Someone like that with this kind of firepower on his side…he is not someone to mess around with."

"I'll keep that in mind, for now. But his secrets are worth learning Mercy, his technology could prove useful once the secrets are unlocked. Dig up more if you can, find out where he is and we can soon keep tabs on him."

…

In another location…

"Hold the frame!"

The image of Dylan firing his M-8 Avenger at the Cartel members and then his M-13 Raptor Sniper Rifle was being reviewed by what appeared to be a panel of people, one of them, wearing what appeared to be a US Army uniform with the indications of the man wearing said uniform to be a General. Another appeared to be a man wearing lab clothing, another person wearing the same General uniform as the first one but was the of the Marines, and one appeared to be a woman in a business suit of sorts. The woman in question was the very first to speak.

"Do we have any data on this new Meta-human?"

"Not yet, but it can be guessed that due to the change in appearance, we can be sure that he has more than one suit of armor. The Armor so far showed nothing that can be linked to any company, public or private. No other military has anything that is close to the armor, even the Power Armor designs used by the hero Steel and by former Metropolis Police Department Corey Mills does not match it. The lack of shields is also an indication that his armor is at a league beyond what the two suits can do in the field from what our agents can see."

"His guns also do not operate like anything our techs have developed, and they obviously do not use lasers as none of the wounds the Cartel have on them are that of energy based weapons. The doctors did find grains of sand shaped material in them so we can assume that those came from the weapons used by the Spectre. There is no sign of gunpowder residue or power burns, so our best estimation is that this weapon is possibly based on either coil or railgun technology."

One of the nearby members of the committee, wearing the US Marines officer's uniform spoke seriously at that, but with the tone of disbelief.

"You cannot be serious! Coil or rail gun technology has NOT reached the point of being infantry portable!"

"Yet right before us is living proof that it is possible, it may give us an advantage in the long run. Sure we know some of our technology can come close, but getting the Spectre to our side, willingly or not might even up the score in terms of speeding up the learning process. We can even use the armor he has to make our own versions and give us an edge in battle."

"Well then, any idea on where we can find this…Spectre?"

"Apparently he may well be operating out in the area of Texas and already we have intercepted reports of many gun rights advocates praising him for his more…proactive approach towards dealing with criminals."

"Proactive approach? Care to explain that one?"

"It's fairly obvious that he does not take kindly to those who cannot be reasoned with and use weapons to harm people. The fact he is willing to shoot back at his targets when they shoot at him, his allies, or civilians tells me that he is not afraid of getting his hands bloody to keep the peace. Most people might have trouble with that, but there are those who think he is a better hero figure than the others since he is not afraid to use lethal force on his foes."

"Isn't that something of a sin among heroes? They usually bring their criminals in alive, injured perhaps but alive. Yet you are suggesting that not only is this Spectre not above using lethal force if he has to, but he has supporters?"

"Yes, they state that unlike other heroes such as Superman or Batman, the Spectre does not waste time when the people he is dealing with are not willing to listen to reason or like that clown nut in Arkham are too far gone to be helped. The fact that he shot those Cartel members is proof that he is not afraid to kill if he has to."

"He did just wound them after all."

The man nodded and replied.

"I am very well aware of that, but the fact is that he has shown not only the use of highly advanced weapons and is undeniably comfortable with them, but he is willing to shoot them as well. That means that if push came to shove, and the criminals are not willing to see reason anymore, he will take them out. And let's face it, the Cartels, namely their underlings, hopped up on drugs or not aren't exactly the kind who willingly negotiate or see reason for that matter."

"Won't that make the 'Hero' community distrust him greatly? Already we have some reports of some heroes calling him a potential villain in disguise."

"Maybe…but that is hardly our concern."

The people talked a bit more and then the leader spoke once more.

"All right, we will see if we can provide more resources and incentives for our technology departments in the weapons and advanced armor and cybernetics branches to do more. I also want to make sure that we have agents and assets on the ground to try and get a lock on where this Spectre is. If we can convince him to side with us willingly, then all the better for our mission and our organization. If not, then we will use ALL methods to get him to join us, willingly or not. "

"What of his ally, the one who called herself an Amazon?"

"She is not as powerful as Superman to be sure, but her potential is high, make sure we are able to find more data on her as well. Even if she is not the primary target, her…abilities still make her both a viable resource, and a threat if she turns rogue. She can say what she likes in the public, but I am not going to rest all my eggs on her being good for long. Power corrupts, absolute power corrupts absolutely. And with power like hers, I have no doubt that it will come to her sooner or later."

…

In the World Assembly…

The assembled heroes along with EDI were now walking into the Assembly Hall with Superman in the lead. Having been the one to propose the formation of the League, it naturally fell on the Man of Steel to help reveal them to the public. It was something that they all knew had to be done to assure the people of the world what was going on with this collection of heroes before them. They also need to prove that this group was here for the right reasons, Dylan knew that to be a certainty but that hardly meant that he liked a lot. Even during his career as an N7 Marine and as a Spectre, he was not too comfortable being in the spotlight.

He was not alone as EDI was with him, though she took a different look in terms of hair which were in dreadlocks and was in her regular form. She was also armed and was currently taking on the mental template of Dylan's old friend Garrus Vakarian in the sense of Garrus being a highly skilled sniper and assault specialist. She was armed with a M-8 Avenger with a Mantis Sniper Rifle and Dylan wore his regular N7 Armor and carried a Vindicator Battle Rifle, a Widow AM Sniper Rifle, a Claymore Shotgun, and a Carnifex Heavy Pistol. Naturally he kept his face hidden by having his Breather Helmet on to make sure no one got a look at his face.

EDI was not in her human disguise and thus was open to all and wore a variant of Miranda's secondary uniform with armor and her visor.

Diana turned to face him and she spoke to the man.

"Are you all right Spectre?"

"I'm fine, but not really all that happy with the media coverage. I had both positive and negative history with the media, though the negative side was a lot thicker than a positive."

The Amazon agreed at that statement as she too had seen Dylan's memories and had heard of that one reporter who seemed to have made it her life's mission to paint the man in the worst possible light. She still could not figure out why the woman would do such a thing, Dylan in her mind had done much for the people he had sworn to protect, and yet this woman tried to make him the enemy. Most of her sisters would have agreed with that sort of thing, but only because they were not aware of Dylan's actions.

"Then we should hope that it will not be like what you had experienced in the past. Perhaps the media here would be different."

"No sense I suppose to not hope for the best. Well, time to face the music I suppose."

Diana was confused a bit before EDI replied.

"Human figure of speech Diana, I'll explain later."

It was naturally Superman being the one to speak to the media as well as the members of the World Assembly. The fact that he was the most publicly exposed hero of the whole band, with Flash being the second most exposed hero was enough to get the attention of all the present dignitaries, and leaders of the nations from all over the world.

"Good day to all esteemed members of the Assembly, as you all have known, the invasion that happened several months ago was a blow that many of us, including myself had not expected. And I am sad to say that I unwittingly did play a part in helping this invasion, but thankfully it has been stopped and the Imperium has been forced away from Earth, but it was not gone by one hero alone, but by a group of heroes…who stand before you now."

The cameras did not need to turn to face the heroes as they were all in sight of them anyway. And naturally Superman continued with his introductions of the rest of the team.

"We all have agreed to work as a team to better protect the Earth from any dangers that may befall it's people as being in a group is better than doing it alone. This team is known in the name of the Justice League, and apart from me, they comprise of Batman from Gotham city."

Batman gave a simple nod at this as Superman continued to speak.

"Flash from Central City."

The Speedster of the bunch gave a cheeky grin and waved that the people, eliciting some chuckles along with some shaking of the heads.

"Hawkgirl."

Hawkgirl bowed her head a bit while holding her mace by the band that she had on her wrist.

"Green Lantern."

Stewart gave a nod in reply to that as he was still a bit uncomfortable with the whole affair but kept himself composed.

"J'onn Jonzz, the last survivor of the Martian race and the one who called us to fight the Imperium."

The last of the Martians nodded as well and bowed in greeting.

"And the Spectre, EDI, and Wonder Woman from Texas."

Wonder Woman smiled and Dylan merely nodded though his face.

Superman then continued to speak to the rest of the press and the people there in the World Assembly.

"They are the core members of the League and while this group is relatively new, it is our hope that this team will be able to defend Earth far better than one lone hero. If there are any questions that you have concerning this group, then feel free to ask them to any of us."

That was when one reporter spoke to Diana.

"I have one for Wonder Woman."

Diana nodded and that was enough to tell the reporter that she was willing to answer his question.

"Are you from Texas?"

"No, I was born in the Amazon island of Themyscira, and I came here to help protect Man's world since I could not sit idly by when danger threatened it."

"I see, how do you find the outside world?"

"It's interesting, there are things that I have never seen before or experienced here in this world of men, so I cannot really fully answer such a question."

It was also here that another person rose, this time it was a military man who wore the usual uniform associated with the Navy and with his medals as well as his stars, he was a General of the US Marine Corps.

"I have a question for the Spectre as well as EDI."

John moved forward and saluted the man in crisp military fashion as befitting the man's position in the military, as well as due to his upbringing to respect military authority figures who's rank supersedes his own.

The General gave the same salute to the Spartan and introduced himself.

"My name is General Franklin Banks, who are you soldier?"

Dylan decided to rely on a cover name that he had formed up in advance, a name that he had formed using

"I am Captain Richard Brooks of the Systems Alliance Navy Marine Corps, N7 Branch as well as an operative of Spectres."

General Banks Whitcomb and just about everyone in the military contingent were surprised by that as they all knew that there was no such organization that was in place under that name. That was what prompted the General to ask his next question though this time around he used the shorter term for the rank John held as he knew that this was a Naval Officer's rank. Though this was the first time he had heard of a Captain being like this before him."

"Where are you from Captain? And what is a Spectre?"

"I am from an alternate reality sir, there in my reality it is already the year 2188. As to what is a Spectre, it is the shorter term for operatives of the office of Special Tactics and Reconnaissance. In essence we serve as covert agents to maintain galactic peace and stability by any means open to us, whether legal or not. That's all I can say for the moment however as certain details of my time there are strictly classified."

This got the attention of the military, the government, and the media as well, that was to be expected as they had not expected the Spectre to be from an alternate reality, and certainly not from the future. Naturally there were some people who were not too keen on taking that announcement from the Spartan at face value. One such person was also a high ranking member of the military who apparently had an army commission and was a three star general.

"I am General Wade Eiling of the United States Army, I am not implying anything Captain Brooks, but how can we be sure that you are telling the truth?"

Superman spoke at that point.

"We all in the League had taken steps to confirm the authenticity of his story General Eiling, and we have confirmed without a doubt that he speaks the truth."

Another question was asked towards EDI by another reporter.

"May I ask what you are EDI?"

The machine spoke in the female tone that the original EDI was known to speak with.

"I am EDI or Extreme Defense Intelligence, an A.I if you will who is able to serve as a multipurpose operations platform. Due to the unique nature of my creation and design, I am not at liberty to speak any further of my origins. Only Captain Brooks can give me permission to speak on these specifics so it would be best to speak to the Captain, not I."

One reporter, a rather aggressive reporter decided to try and take a bit of a swing at EDI.

"Why can't you tell us yourself?"

"Because it violates protocols and I am a military machine sir."

One of the other reporters spoke next to Dylan.

"Garrett Mitchell from the Seattle Gazette, may I ask what is the difference between your reality and ours Captain?"

Dylan sighed a bit mentally at that and decided to give some information away, but not anything related to the events that shaped his existence as no one here had to hear about the Reapers. Last thing he wanted was to be the one the cause all manner of mass panic, kind of ironic when one took the time to consider that long ago, the Council tried to muzzle him about the Reapers to avoid a mass panic. Only difference here was that the Reapers were NOT real so telling them about a race of sentient machine ships that were long ago controlled by an A.I created by an ancient race called the Leviathans was not going to amount to much.

"In my reality we do not have Meta-humans, but we do have aliens, just not the ones you are familiar with. Humanity is a galactic power and part of a larger galactic community in my reality. While all Earth Governments are still the same, the Systems Alliance that I served under is the acting military, political, scientific, and exploratory arm of Humanity and Humanity currently held a seat in the Galactic Government known as the Citadel Council. Headed by races that I know do not exist here."

"Can we see images of these races?"

Dylan sighed a bit more at that and wondered just how people would react to the scope of the information that they were asking him to reveal to them. He obviously could not tell them of the Reaper Wars, and many other things, even if they did not exist here. He gave a slight look at the others in the League and they nodded so he gave a nod as he began to work on his Omni-tool.

"There are a number of races in my reality, but there are three races that can be considered as powerful alongside Humanity. The first are the Asari, a mono-gendered race of human like aliens who are all female, the Turians who are of avian descent and happen to be among the few dextroacid based life forms in the Galaxy, and the Salarians who are descended from amphibians. I will make it clear once more than since I am from an alternate reality, none of these races exist here so do not ask me if I have encountered this reality's analog to them."

He showed images of the Asari first and gave a short data file on them, needless to say seeing the Asari for the first time and seeing how human they looked as well as being all female had tongues wagging. And he had no doubt in mind that a vast majority of the people here and those watching were going to have their imagination on overdrive. Not that he could blame the men in the bunch considering how Flash reacted at the news of the Asari being what they are.

Afterwards, it was followed by the Turians as well as the Salarians, then followed by the other races. There were naturally questions towards him about the races and Dylan had to once more assure them that the races mentioned were not native to this reality and thus the more radical and militant ones of the races mentioned were not around. Next naturally were questions about whether he was willing to trade technology to them. This was a topic he did not like since a vast majority of his technology relied on E-zero to function as well as certain manufacturing processes and machines that as far as he had seen were not exactly native here. The only things he could trade that did not drain his precious supplies of E-zero would have to be Omni-tools and Medi-Gel, these he could trade with no problems at the moment.

This was also met with approval by the League as they were well aware of the benefits that these two types of technology could bring to the world. When asked why not military technology, he replied with finality that there was no way he would trade military tech and with good reason. The first was that a number of materials and resources needed to make the armor and weapons he had were not yet present. The second was that the process, facilities, and machines needed to make this all possible were not yet active and thus it would be very difficult to make them. The third was that doing so could unleash pandemonium in this world and he was in no mood to have them do what had doomed the Krogan as well. And the last was that he was under oath as a member of the military not to trade technology to a foreign power, even if they were human, and also because he did not want to inhibit the natural development of a race by introducing technology they were not ready to have…no doubt recalling the arguments Mordin made and he respect his Salarian ally for that stance as it made great sense to him.

Naturally some were not too happy while others admitted that his arguments made sense. Eventually Dylan made it clear that he was planning to operate in Texas itself alongside EDI and Wonder Woman but they were not going to interfere with the actions of the police when dealing with crimes that they could not reach in time. They instead would support the police and federal units in their duties and would only take a more proactive stance if they were dealing with a crime in their current area of patrol or a number of serious threats that the police and other law enforcement units would be hard pressed to stop.

That naturally meant alien invasions, terrorist attacks, meta-human threats, and crime organizations that had access to high grade military ordnance or worse. That was something some of the people did not expect with Shepard answering that he respected the rule of law and thus would only move in if the situation got too hot to handle and lives, innocent lives were on the line. The Spectre also had to deal with the fact that some were not too pleased with the harshness of his actions on certain criminal elements, one reporter who apparently had an axe to grind with him mentioned the actions he undertook when he shot the Cartel members and his beating up several criminals.

He replied that in his reality, before becoming a Spectre, he was a military officer and he had to deal with the worst of individuals, murderers, traitors, terrorists and the like, some human, others not human, and he treated them in the manner that was fitting of the law. If they were convinced to stand down and reformed, then he would leave them be, but if they harmed others despite everything then he would not hesitate to kill. He pointed out one case after he became Spectre of a female human criminal boss who pointed him to two former associates who were ruling slavery, drugs, and illegal weapons tech. He dealt with them and eventually convinced her to disband the criminal group, and eventually she returned as a social servant who actually helped him deal with several criminal cases in a space station that was the literal cesspit of the worst of the worst in the galaxy he came from.

He was naturally referring to Helena Blake, who had survived the battles of Omega and used her contacts to actually smuggle in supplies and weapons to Aria prior to the invasion by Cerberus on the station, and even helped him track down to some degree Morinth herself as Morinth's latest victim was someone she had hoped to help leave Omega and establish a life of her own.

So to him, he was willing to use diplomacy and peaceful means, but if they failed, the enemies were no longer willing to listen to reason, and no other option existed, then he would act. And he was willing to pay the consequences and own up to it. He was first and foremost a soldier and more than willing to get his hands bloody to do his job if it came to that. Why? Because it was his duty as a N7 Marine of the Systems Alliance and as a Spectre to do what he could to protect peace and stability in the galaxy. And even when he was allowed to break the law, he in his core was a man who abided by the law.

The discussion carried on for quite a bit until it was time for the newly minted Justice League to go forward and do their thing for the world. Dylan however had a feeling in his gut that things were only going to get more complicated. And as they left, he could not help but mentally slap himself as he recalled just what he was thinking about only moments before.

(Why the heck do I get the feeling I am going to regret that train of thought?)

…

Deep in space…

In a large dome on what appeared to be a city, large numbers of aliens were deep in a heated debate over something. And judging from the various alien races that were there it was one hell of a discussion. Soon several faces appeared in one massive monitor and began to speak.

The aliens began to calm down at the words of the faces on the monitor and soon the images came in to show a planet that was soon destroyed and reduced to a massive asteroid field. The very same asteroid field that was now on top of the dome in view. Apparently this was a conclave of aliens seeking out the ones responsible for the destruction of the world. The world in question was Ajuris 4 and the dome was located on the sister world Ajuris 5 and the aliens in the dome were eager to have the accused brought to them. Soon a force of robots that were human like in form appeared and the aliens were quick to recognize them.

They were the Man Hunters, and it was they who would bring the accused to the planet. Their oath was the most telling of their commitment to the task.

"NO ONE ESCAPES THE MAN HUNTERS!"

And soon the Man Hunters were given their target through a nearby holographic display by the chosen prosecutor…

John Stewart himself.

…

Back on Earth, Detroit Michigan…

Stewart moved through the streets of his old home town as it had been a while since he had gone and come back home. So far a lot of things had changed in the old neighborhood and right now he missed the old neighborhood. He had been gone for so long, both in his time as a Marine, and when he was chosen to be a Green Lantern…heck when he joined the Green Lantern Corps, he only had the literal clothes on his back when he took on the duty of the ring and everything that came with it.

He passed a diner and soon saw the people there watching was obviously was a basketball game, taking in the play by play. And when the team won, the cheers came out once more, he could hear it and could not help but smile a little to himself. There was a time that he was like them and it was hard to imagine that he was back in his home city and state of Detroit Michigan.

He moved away and looked to see a punk talking to a man owning a convenience store. There was no gun in sight, but Stewart was no fool as he could see the store owner's expression. And soon seeing the gun metal itself convinced him further as he quickly moved out of sight.

(Damn punk.)

Stewart wasted little time as he moved out of sight and waited for the thief to get into the car and drive off. Once he was in the clear, he moved onto the road and used his Ring. The thief spotted Stewart and briefly wondered just who the idiot in the coat was standing on the road. He then wondered why he saw what appeared to be a green light coming at him. Soon he got his answer as John stopped his car cold by holding onto the tire. He tried to floor it but soon John covered the car and smashed it up and down a few times.

After that LESS than safe ride…made worse since he did not bother to wear a seatbelt, the punk fell out, only to be secured by Stewart and he was shook around to release all the money he had taken. The storeowner was about shout for help when he saw his money falling down to him, followed by the crook in a shaken and near unconscious heap. Stewart merely placed his hand with the Ring aside and walked on.

As he moved around he finally spotted a familiar sight…the old basketball court that he used to play in when he was still a kid, long before signing himself to the Marine Corps when he was old enough. It was a darn good thing that despite being from a simple family, he had been able to avoid getting into trouble with the law to the point that he would have pissed away his chances to be in the Corps.

He was walking by when he stopped as a basketball, apparently being used flew out of the court and in his direction, he saw that the ball had an owner a young kid.

"Hey mister, a little help please?"

He took the ball up and then decided to try his luck. It had been years since he had ever played basketball, namely since his time in the Corps when it came to recreation after a mission, they usually did games that were NOT of human culture. It took him years to get used to that and even when Guy and Rayner were able to come in for a break, they were soon called off to their sectors. Thus he had a feeling that his basketball skills got rusty…REALLY rusty.

He held it carefully and soon shot the ball into the hoop…and missed.

John sighed at that and replied as he looked at the bouncing ball as the kid who frowned at him.

"Damn, I really have gotten rusty."

The kid did not say much but it was clear that he was annoyed himself

"I'll say…back when you were younger, you'd have done that shot with no problem."

Stewart turned to the sound of the voice and he recognized him despite the aged look the man in the beret and coat had. He was Harold McGee, his old high school history teacher and one of the people he respected growing up here in Detroit. He was also the one who had seen him off when he graduated and eventually joined the Marines.

:Mr. McGee!"

The old man smiled a bit in amusement at that and replied.

"You know that we're not in high school anymore John, it's Harold to you and me."

"Oh…right, sorry."

"No worries about that, but I think it's a good idea for Chris here to give you some pointers in the game you used to play when you were a few years younger."

John looked at the young man and spoke.

""You know him?"

Harold grinned as Chris walked up to him and replied.

"I sure do, he's my grandson."

John's eyes widened at that and he spoke out his surprise easily enough.

"Grandson?"

Harold nodded with a smile and so did Chris until he spoke once more to his former student.

"You know, you've been gone a very long time from your old neighborhood John, things have changed when I last saw you and when you were last here."

John felt a pang of guilt at that as he knew just how right those words were. One of his problems was getting used to being back on Earth after so long. It was ironic really, he was a resident of Earth, born and raised, yet he felt like he was the alien in his own home world, let alone his own neighborhood.

"Yeah…a lot has changed."

Harold moved to place his hand on John's shoulder and replied.

"Maybe, but I'm proud of you, first a Marine, and now a Green Lantern, I saw you on the news, you might have gotten older, but I'd recognize you any time of the day. You were always a good kid Stewart, a bit rough around the edges, but always knew right from wrong and no doubt about your sense of responsibility."

John smiled a bit at that and Chris was able to hear about that and his once simple look turned to awe as he spoke.

"Green Lantern?! You're the Green Lantern I saw on the news a few days ago?!"

John smiled a bit and took off his glasses.

"Yeah, that's me."

"COOL! And you knew my grandfather?"

Harold grinned at that and soon spoke as he took his grandson and his former student, they had a lot of catching up to do.

…

In the Watch-Tower…

The Normandy was currently docked with the space Tower and right now Hawkgirl was currently working with EDI who was in her normal form. And naturally along with them was Flash himself, munching away. Dylan and Diana were currently back in Texas, dealing with a case that was at least a week long, after they had gotten back from the meeting with the World Assembly. EDI was able to help them many times but was asked by the Commander to help with the maintenance of the Watch Tower.

As Hawkgirl worked on one area, Flash decided to try and make some conversation, namely with Shaeyra.

"So what did you used to do back on Thanagar?"

Hawkgirl thought about it carefully, recalling her true mission after all and decided to lie for the time being. Flash was funny, annoying to be sure, and too much of a flirt at times, but he did have his moments. And while she would never say it in front of him, she actually enjoyed his antics from time to time. Thus she decided to go back to her cover and hope that this would work out.

"I was a cop, there were always criminals, and you can guess what I did then."

Flash grinned at that while popping a bit more of the popcorn into his mouth and spoke.

"Sure…but what about when you're not working?"

Shaeyra looked a bit at Flash with a raised eyebrow underneath the mask and wondered just where he was going with that line of questioning..

"Care to explain that?"

Flash smiled a bit and replied.

"Was there…a Hawkboy back home?"

The Thanagarian woman did not reply at that after sealing up the area she was working on and replied.

"Not telling…leave it at that."

J'onn soon joined them as EDI got up from her own workstation and spoke to them.

"I am finished with my line of repairs, I'll be heading back into the command station to run some diagnostics."

The others nodded as Hawkgirl spoke she would handle some maintenance work elsewhere. Flash soon spoke with J'onn but his choice of words and the question were not exactly tactful. Once he realized that he tried to say an apology. However that died out when the alarms in the Watch Tower went off.

J'onn was quick to speak about what the alarms meant.

"It's an incursion!"

EDI however shook her head and spoke as she had managed to reach the nearby viewing port and spoke to the others.

"No, it's not an incursion, I am detecting three human formed objects entering the atmosphere. I am magnifying the images now."

The two heroes looked to see the images come in when EDI used her own Omni-tool to show them the images coming in. Sure enough the figures were human like in form, but it was obvious that they were anything but human. They were large and obviously machine like and EDI spoke what she was able to scan.

"I cannot make a complete scan on them but I can state that the figures are purely machines and working with a highly advanced A.I. I have determined their trajectory to be in the area of the United States, namely in the state of Michigan, the city being Detroit."

"Good to know! Time to get moving."

"I will send word to all the others in the League to make it there as soon as possible. I will remain here to monitor the situation on the off chance that we may encounter others like the three on approach."

…

As the others boarded the Javelin, Hawkgirl was informed that Batman was currently dealing with a matter on his own back in Gotham. Superman was focusing on an Earthquake elsewhere, but Dylan and Diana would be on their way to meet them groundside at all possible speed. The Normandy could not fire any of it's weapons there due to the risks this would pose on the planet below them. It did not take long for the three robots to land in Detroit and already they were causing a heck of mess, even more so since it was rush hour.

One man was forced to abandon his car as the lead robot casually tossed it aside, unmindful for the fact that he had nearly killed several bystanders who had managed to move away as the vehicle crushed the space they were occupying no less than a moment or two before. That was enough for others to get out and leave their vehicles as the beings began to move in deeper into the city.

But it was here that the Javelin on auto-pilot passed overhead and soon out came Hawkgirl, J'onn, and Flash who had actually flapped his arms like a bird. On a normal person without some form of help, he would have died from that move, but with Flash's speed, his actions actually generated lift to allow him to land safely.

…

The three heroes now faced off the three robots and they were soon aware that they had onlookers in the area. It always happened this way and it was tough on them since that meant civilians were in danger. However they could risk moving away since they needed to find out just what the robots were doing here of all places. Or better yet, why were they here. But it was not long before EDI made them aware that company was coming, the good kind of company.

The others turned to see none other than Dylan and Wonder Woman come into the fray with Dylan being carried by Diana. As soon as they landed, Dylan gave his thanks to Diana who smiled. Truth be told she was worried that he would refuse her suggestion that she carried him to the battle as it would be faster. She thought that as a man it would be a blow to his pride for her to do that for him.

To which he stated that he respected and trusted Diana, so he had no problem accepting her suggestion. Besides he had worked with strong and tough women long enough to know that when they offer help and are sincere in their desire to help, you bloody well don't say no. That actually impressed Diana and thus here they were.

J'onn moving towards them and he spoke.

"I thought you were both on a case in Austin?"

"We were on a case with the Police, but we managed to help locate the last of the hidden caches of drugs and weapons that the Black Guards had been keeping from us. And it's the mother load to boot as well."

The Black Guards were a rogue militia band that had drug trafficking charges on them, they had been dealt with before by the police and the FBI, but their caches of drugs and weapons were hard to find. Dylan and Diana naturally were on the scene to deal with the problem and helped the police track down the largest and obviously most important cache they had. The two in conjunction with the police and FBI as well as Border Patrol had busted up smaller caches but it took a while to track this one.

Dylan turned and faced the three machines and spoke to Superman.

"Any idea what they are doing here J'onn? They don't look the least bit familiar to me."

J'onn shook his head at that.

"No idea, but we're going to find out…hopefully without having to tear up the place."

Dylan agreed with J'onn there but he decided to ready himself and so did Wonder Woman as they all eyed the new arrivals. J'onn was already able to sense that Superman was on his way and thus they were going to go first and get their answers.

"Who are you and what are you doing here?"

One of the machines, the apparent leader of the bunch spoke in a cold tone.

"We seek the Green Lantern known as John Stewart."

THAT quickly got the team on edge, namely Dylan as he began to hear that voice in the back of his head to get his weapon ready. Flash was next to speak at this as worry was on his face, no longer was he going to make a joke about this but get his game face on.

'What do you want with him?"

The leader gave no emotion and action, but the voice that came from it was cold and filled with a tone that Dylan could not help but feel like he was facing a Reaper again.

THAT answer did not sit well with Hawkgirl and she quickly made her intent obvious as she attacked the lead machine with her mace at full power.

The result was her being knocked aside and it was more than enough for the others to fight as J'onn made his move, while Flash quickly moved to rescue Hawkgirl while Wonder Woman and Dylan moved forward to attack the new arrivals to Earth along with J'onn. It was not long before Superman came in, he would have normally asked what was going on, but his Super hearing had picked up on the situation as he came in, along with EDI filling him in via the Normandy's long range scanner and images.

He was now aware that the machines were not caring about who they had to fight in order to find Stewart, and their willingness to fight in a dense civilian area was also just as telling. That was why he appeared to send one of the robots flying back when he slammed an elbow into the back, digging a massive trench on the ground itself.

One of the robots extended their batons into a staff form and flicked a switch and soon the robot fired it at the closest target…that being Dylan. The energy smashed hard into the Kinetic Barriers, and briefly flared due to the fact that the Kinetic Barriers combined all of the known shield technology and some modifications EDI had made. They were not lasting long though as the shields failed. But the plating did not as it held the blast off and allowed Dylan to cover as Diana came in and blocked the next blast and quickly moved to land a blow of her own.

She was stopped of course by the blow that sent her flying back a bit, Dylan however quickly moved and caught Diana before she hit a nearby car as Hawkgirl came back alongside Flash.

…

The robots began to engage the League more seriously and already they were more than ready to respond even when John Stewart was not with them right now. Superman, Hawkgirl, and Wonder Woman along with J'onn fought in the air while Flash along with Dylan provided the ground based firepower, Dylan was currently wearing his Kassa Fabrications Set of the N7 Armor, along with a Vindicator Battle Rifle with Extended Barrel and an Assault Rifle Omni-Blade, a N7 Eagle with a Pistol Scope and Heavy Barrel, a Katana Shotgun with the Shotgun Blade attachment and Smart Choke, an Indra Sniper Rifle with Thermal Scope and Extra Thermal Clip Capacity, and last was a Geth Spitfire.

The very same robot that blasted at Dylan took one more shot at the Spectre.

Dylan quickly rolled out of the way of the incoming blast, he had no idea just what these robots wanted with Stewart, but it was obviously not for his continuing good health. He could easily see that they had direct energy weapons and while his shields had been improved, he knew better than to take a direct hit when he did not need to. He also had to worry about the civilians in the area and hopefully avoid casualties. This reminded him way too much of that mission he had with the Biotic extremists who took hold of a medical research base and he as well as…Ash…and Kaidan had to kill them while avoiding civilian deaths. It was a tough call but it was pulled off.

He aimed his Vindicator Battle Rifle at the next attacker and unleashed several bursts at it and managed to force the humanoid like machine back with some damage as the rounds moved faster than regular rounds. The machine responded by firing a blast at Dylan which was countered quickly by Diana who blocked it with her bracers, allowing Dylan to switch to his Indra Sniper Rifle and fire a powerful round at the attacker. It tried to block the incoming round, but the explosion on the arm was enough to show that the blow was right on the money.

The robotic being turned to see that it's right arm was just destroyed and it was falling down, it turned to face the Spectre but did not have long to react as Diana came forward and landed one nasty left hook to send it flying back. It tried to attack the Amazon but was forced back by weapons fire from Dylan's Vindicator as he focused his fire at the robot that Diana attacked hard and fast. Diana quickly reacted to another attack heading her way and blocked using her bracers as the beams fired at her came fast and hard. Superman was also busy trying to fight off the one attacking him.

Dylan saw the civilians trying to get away but in their panicked state, they would be injuring themselves. He quickly made his decision based on the existing options and spoke to Diana.

"Wonder Woman! We need to get the civilians clear! We'll hold them while you get the people out of here as fast as you can!"

Wonder Woman nodded and moved from the fight to get the civilians to safety just as Superman arrived on the scene. Superman gave her a nod of greetings and she did the same as she began to convince the onlookers to get away before things went bad, and to make it easier, some of the more level headed civilians began to help her by convincing the others to leave quickly. The arrival of the Detroit Police helped as she told them to help get people out of the area while she and the League focused on stopping the rampage.

Superman quickly came to the aid of the others and it was not long before she herself went back into the fight, though she hoped that they could get some answers on why they sought out Stewart once this was over. The idea of forcing people from their lands and homes felt repugnant to the Amazon and she hoped that this would end. Though she had no doubt that like the others, the question on why they wanted Stewart was on her mind.

Superman and the others were also giving the airborne robots a hard time, but obviously whoever built them were not to be underestimated in a straight up air to air fight. And right now the ones of the League on the ground were ready to attack as Shepard reloaded his Vindicator Battle Rifle before moving to his Indra to open fire at the robots. One of the robots spotted the Spectre and began to take aim at him. Hawkgirl and Superman as well as J'onn gave as good as they got but it was clear that this was going to be a tough fight.

It was here that something or rather someone spoke out.

"STOP!"

The League turned and soon saw John Stewart, but instead of helping his comrades in stopping the Man Hunters, the heroes watched in surprise as Green Lantern used a wall construct to stop them from fighting the machines that had come here for him. Naturally the others were caught off guard until Superman finally spoke to Green Lantern once the wall had been lowered by the Green Lantern in question.

"Stewart! What is going on?"

Stewart did not respond to the question and moved forward to the machine like beings. He knew that this was coming for his own reasons, when the explosions happened, he left the barber shop after Harold refused his Grandson to have his haircut emulate John's own. His changing into his uniform as a Green Lantern made many in the shop look at him in awe but he knew that things were about to change. One of them, the leader of the bunch soon moved to speak at John. Dylan studied the whole thing while armed with Indra Sniper Rifle, he had no idea what those things were, but it seemed that John did know them.

"Are you the Green Lantern John Stewart?"

"Yes."

Superman soon moved to them and once more asked what was going on here while Dylan and the others looked on. Dylan would have listened in, but decided against it right now as there was still some work that had to be done. Namely seeing if anyone had been injured by the machines before them, and they were hoping that Superman could finally get some answers. But when they looked back, they saw Stewart being restrained by the machines and now being led back into space, right after he actually surrendered his ring…something was definitely wrong here.

Superman however was not going to give up in getting some answers on what was going on here, but since he was not going to get answers from John himself, he decided on a different course of action even if he himself was not all that sure that this was a good idea.

…

On the Watch Tower…

After they finally got to the Watch Tower hours later after helping fix as best they could the mess in Detroit, Superman finally spoke to the others on what had happened to John. He had pulled a few strings with some of his off world contacts and that included none other than an old acquaintance of his. That person was none other than the intergalactic bounty hunter Lobo. He and Lobo were not friends in any stretch of the imagination, but they did get along somewhat. If there was anyone who had an ear on criminal activity and the activity of the ones chasing them, it was the last of the Czarnian.

Normally finding Lobo would have been difficult since he was always mobile or had a lot of bars to go to in order to get drunk or pick a fight. But Clark lucked out when he managed to run into Lobo who was currently chasing a bounty of his when he was taking one of their ships into the nearest planet that was frequented by a lot of people and beings like Lobo. Unfortunately the answers he got were neither pleasing nor understandable. But at least he and Lobo left each other's presence amicably, no doubt due to the fact that Lobo was on a schedule and also due to the fact that the bounty hunter still respected him a bit after that incident with the Collector.

"I just got off the horn with an old acquaintance of mine…the bounty hunter Lobo, don't ask me who he is or why I know him, him and I are not on the best of terms but he did get his info and told me since he seemed to be in a good mood. The band of machines we fought with are a special force of robots called the Man Hunters. They are called in to capture dangerous individuals to be brought before the courts who call on them to track down the ones they wish to put on trial for crimes. The Man Hunters came to Earth to bring Stewart to trial about the destruction of a planet going by the name of Arjuris 4 during some sort of mission that John was involved in. The planet was destroyed and just about everyone on it was killed, that was why they deployed the Man Hunters to capture John. I then got on the horn with the other Green Lanterns who are human and they were not happy with the news. Kyle Rayner thinks it's complete nonsense and so does Guy Gardner, and even Hal Jordan agrees, but the rest of the Corps is not the least bit happy. All of them are not going to be the least bit supportive of John the very second they see him so right now only Kyle, Guy, and Hal are on John's side."

Flash raised an eyebrow at that and he replied.

"That can't be right! I mean I might not know a lot about the Green Lanterns, but anyone with their reputation and duties do not ever do things like that. And yeah John might be a stick in the mud, but a murderer? And someone who wiped out an entire planet to boot? That's just completely bogus!"

Hawkgirl soon spoke next.

"But he did not deny it and he did not resist the Man Hunters either. That might mean that there might be some grain of truth to them calling him over."

Wonder Woman, despite her less than stellar meeting with Lantern shook her head at that.

"I do not think Lantern has it in himself to do the crime he is accused of. I might not have that good a history with him, but I find it hard to believe that one such as him would be a murderer. Even more when in the scale that he is being accused of since the destruction of…an entire world would be very difficult to hide. And there are questions, such as what could possibly motivate someone like him to resort to destroying a whole world? And why is it only now that they came for him? And why was it not his fellow Lanterns who came to apprehend him? He is one of them and thus he should be brought in by his fellows to explain himself in court?"

Batman turned next to Dylan who was silent and spoke to him.

'Spectre, care to offer any thoughts on your end on this situation we just got in our hands here?"

Dylan replied calmly while cradling his Kestrel Helmet.

"I'm in agreement with Flash, Wonder Woman, and Superman. I might not know Stewart but I doubt he has done this either intentionally or unintentionally. I'm not familiar with the Green Lanterns either, but if they are a peacekeeping force, then there would be no way they would allow anyone like that into their ranks. And it does beg the question why it was not them who came to get Stewart as he is one of theirs and thus had to be tried by them before being given to another court, as well as him having the same powers as they do?"

"Personally I want to take a look at this situation and see just what are the circumstances to how the planet that he was accused of destroying actually got destroyed. Something about it is odd to me but I can only guess unless we go there ourselves to see. And while I'm no lawyer, I know for a fact that unless there is actual proof, Stewart's guilt is still in question."

Superman looked over everything and replied to what was in the mind of everyone else.

"We have to find out what is going on here, the idea of Stewart being taken in by the Man Hunters does not make any sense to me. I might not have worked long with John but I know enough to know that he is a good man and the idea of him committing a crime is hard to swallow. I guess that means that some of us will have to go and do what we can to find out just what is going on and who is accusing Stewart of this crime."

Batman then spoke next.

"We still need to consider just who among us are willing to go on this mission. We cannot all go since doing so will leave Earth undefended. The very second the criminals find out we're not here, there is going to be trouble."

The others agreed and it was there that Dylan spoke.

"We can leave EDI here along with the Normandy, she can help coordinate the heroes who are left behind. I would recommend having contact with other trusted heroes whom you all know of as well. They can help maintain the peace here until we get back."

Batman nodded as well as he spoke.

"I can contact Nightwing along with Batgirl and Robin to help in keeping the peace alongside myself and Diana. I also know some other heroes who can help in this matter until the situation with Stewart has been dealt with."

Superman also spoke as well.

"I can call on Steel and Supergirl to help with the matters both in Metropolis and around the world as well. Supergirl might be young, but she is capable and this might help her out in the long run when she gets older."

"What about you Shepard?"

Dylan looked at Diana and replied to that question.

"I'll go with them in the Javelin, apart from Superman, Hawkgirl, J'onn, EDI, and Stewart, I have a lot of experience in space travel, and since I had to dabble in galactic politics as a Spectre, I might be able to help get Stewart out of whatever mess he was taken into. And I might even figure out if there is more at play here than just a trial. This is not the first power play of a trial I have been in and I doubt it will be the last."

Diana agreed with the idea, she would have wanted to come with the others to help their comrade. Even if she still had some level of dislike for Stewart due to their history and first meeting, she was not pleased with how he had been taken. A part of her wondered just why the Green Lantern did not resist but she decided that she would let the matter be solved by her comrades despite the fact that she had a part of herself interested in learning about other cultures and races beyond Earth itself. For now she would stay behind and help the heroes left here on Earth to help keep the peace while her comrades helped Stewart as leaving Earth vulnerable was a very unwise move.

"That is good to know, I will remain here alongside Batman and the other heroes to help keep Earth safe until you all get back safely."

EDI also agreed with the assessment.

"I will be able to use my abilities to help monitor all activity in the world to make sure that we can determine what can be done by the heroes here and what can be handled by the local authorities. This will ensure a level of maximum efficiency in allocating our team's effective talents."

As soon as everyone was in agreement the League went to do what they could, there was no doubt in any of their minds that this was going to be a serious trial by fire for all of them. Superman, Hawkgirl, J'onn, Flash, and Shepard boarded a Javelin while Batman, EDI, and Wonder Woman stayed behind. This was going to be the most serious thing that they were going to take part in. They were going to be dropped deep into what could become a serious mess. But before they left, Diana w3alked towards Dylan and spoke to him.

"I will pray that the Gods will watch over you and the others on this mission."

Dylan smiled at that as he placed on his N7 Breather Helmet while wearing his Armax Arsenal variant of his N7 Armor and replied as soon as he was able to wear his helmet. He had changed his arsenal to that of M-13 Raptor with an increased Thermal Capacity and Extended Barrel, the Particle Rifle with an Extended Barrel and Thermal Clip Capacity, A Scorpion Heavy Pistol with Scope and Melee Stunner, and a Disciple Shotgun with Shotgun Blade Attachment and Smart Choke. He hoped not to use these guns on a court of law, but better to have a gun and not need it, than need a gun and not have it.

"Thanks, where we're going and what we're going to do, we're going to need all the help we can get."

Soon the Javelin powered up and took off to where the Man-Hunters had taken John Stewart to account for crimes that the rest of the League felt that he had not taken part in. It was not going to be easy for them to leave earth, but this was one of their own and Shepard had always been known to go out of his way to help his friends. Just about everyone in his team, new and old could attest to that and they knew that he would literally play with the devil to keep them from losing themselves.

…

To be continued…

…

Author's Notes:

Here we are, the newest chapter for Mass Effect Justice League: Spectre and I hope that it will keep this story alive and will show that while I am swamped with work, I can still do what I want with the stories. Anyhow, this is obviously dealing with the matter of Stewart being accused of blowing Aguris 4 up, and Shepard is now going back into familiar territory. And obviously this will be dealing with politics and backstabbing problems that try to royally screw the good guys over.

It doesn't help matters though that John Stewart is not exactly helping himself in something like this so while Dylan is not going to do any shooting, he is not going to be on the sidelines. But if there is one thing he can count on, it's that no matter what universe, or in this case, reality you are in, there will always be assholes and hypocrites regardless of race or gender.

Anyway, hope to show that this story is not dead in the water just yet. And soon we get to see how Dylan deals with getting John out of the hole he willingly placed himself in. After that…who knows?

Also...more updates on the horizon.

See you soon!


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